Suryakumar Yadav, the captain of the Indian team, bowls the skipper during the 2026 India T20 World Cup T20 match at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on February 7. Yadav encrypted his name in the record books with an undisputed innings.

In the third match of the tournament, the Indian bowling team’s batting order was surprisingly spread out against the American bowling team. At one point in the match, the home team lost 6 wickets for 77 runs. By the time half the batsmen returned to the hut, a score of 100 was miles away from India’s range. From then on, Yadav single-handedly brought India back into the game.

Yadav commanding from the front

The defending champions, batting first, scored 161 runs against 9 wickets in 20 overs after the bowling failed. Suryakumar Yadav himself also scored 84 points. The middle-order batsman remained not out after facing 49 balls. He not only tried to provide some stability to the batting structure but also went to great lengths to secure an important score. In the process, he smashed a total of fourteen boundaries, including ten fours and four sixes.

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In the last T20 World Cup, the team was coached by Rohit Sharma. After his retirement, Suryakumar Yadav was appointed as the leader of the force. The ongoing match is his first T20 World Cup as captain. In his first match as captain in T20 WC, the Mumbaikar created history.

Surykumar Yadav overtakes Babar Azam

With his unbeaten score of 84 runs, Yadav officially became the second-highest run-scorer by a debutant captain in the ICC T20 World Cup, surpassing some of the best players in the industry such as Babar Azam (Pakistan) and Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka). Former West Indies opener Chris Gayle tops the list with a score of 88 against Australia at the Oval in 2009.

Highest score in first innings as captain (T20 WC):

1. 88 Chris Gayle vs Australia Oval 2009

2. 84*Suryakumar Yadav vs United States, Wankhede, 2026

3. 68* Babar Azam vs. Ind, Dubai, 2021

4. 65 Mahela Jayawardene vs Ken Joberg, 2007

5. 61 Mohd Ashraf vs WO Joburg 2007

New Zealand helps Suryakumar Yadav find his mojo

Yadav struggled a lot for Team India in 2025. He batted beautifully for Mumbai Indians in the 2025 IPL season, but his performances in the national cricket team deserve to be forgotten more. Ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup, when Yadav’s credibility as a T20 batsman was being questioned a lot, he bounced back.

The 35-year-old batsman scored three half-centuries in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand. Today’s game against the United States proved that he is in the same hot form that he showed in the bilateral series against the Blackcaps.

Read more: ‘Indian batsmen inspired by Pakistan’: Netizens mock India’s poor batting performance against US