"Keeping T20 World Cup in mind, games are important": Suryakumar Yadav

VISHAKAPATNAM: Ahead of the clash against Australia in the first T20I, Suryakumar Yadav wants the new-looking team to play fearless cricket and do all that helps the team.

The World Cup 2023 finalists will face title champions Australia in a five-match series, with the first game to be held on Thursday in Visakhapatnam.

Suryakumar, who is leading the Men in Blue in the absence of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, spoke on the significance of the series in light of the upcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA.

"I think what I told them when I met them in the afternoon was let's be very selfless when we go onto the field. I am a guy who doesn't think much of personal milestones ahead of team goals. Hence, I told them to keep the team's interests first and then whatever comes after that, they can take their call. I have played with them a lot of times during the IPL and a few India games and they know how I function, and it wasn't that difficult to communicate my thoughts. We are excited about the series," Suryakumar said ahead of the first T20I against Australia, here on Wednesday.

"I think keeping the T20 World Cup in mind, the games we play till then are very important. My message to them was very clear: just be fearless and do whatever it takes to help the team. They have been doing all this in the IPL and have played a lot of domestic cricket recently. They are in good form as I have heard from our support staff. I told them only one thing - enjoy your time in the middle, do the same things and don't try to do something different," he added.

Suryakumar has been a prolific performer in the T20I format, having scored 1841 runs at an average of 46.02 and a strike rate of 172.7. He also has three T20I centuries to his name.

The series also marks the return of Axar Patel, who was initially named in the World Cup squad but was later ruled out due to injury.

India's squad: Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (Vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (Wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.