Suryakumar Yadav has all the backing of the Mumbai Indians management, and rightly so, given his reputation in the T20s, a format in which he has carved his name among the echelons. Yet, his continued diminishing returns are hard to ignore for Mumbai, especially after he was dismissed for a golden duck on Sunday in the IPL 2026 game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur.
Suryakumar had taken a short break after Mumbai’s previous game, and hence did not travel with the squad to Raipur. He was home for the birth of his second child, and returned to the camp only the day before to lead the side in the absence of injured Hardik Pandya. But the brief stay away from the game did not help him as he was outdone by a 138kph fuller delivery just outside the off stump from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, which had enough seam movement to keep the batter in check. The fast bowler asked the question, and Suryakumar moved across, flashed hard at a drive, and the thick edge carried the ball straight to Virat Kohli at first slip, who dived low to his right to complete the dismissal.
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This was the second time this season Surya had been dismissed for a golden duck, the first being last month at the Wankhede Stadium against the Punjab Kings.
With the dismissal, Surya’s average dipped further in IPL 2026 to a mere 17.73, his worst since 2017, when he had scored just 105 runs in 10 innings that season at 17.50. His lowest, however, was in 2015, when he averaged just 17.44.
Despite managing just 195 runs in 11 innings this season, only a year after winning the IPL’s Most Valuable Player award, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene believes Suryakumar is experienced enough to find a way out of his rut and that all he needs is the management’s trust.
“So, batsmen, me being a batsman as well, I’ve gone through those kinds of situations. Like, why is it happening to me? But it does happen. So, the conversations, like, keep trusting. Keep trusting your thought process. Keep trusting your ability. Back yourself in that situation. Because he’s that sort of player. He’s very unorthodox,” said Jayawardene last week.
“How he sees, how he plays, we keep encouraging him. And sometimes, I mean, if you look at Surya for us, he had three, four brilliant years, not just last year. So, sometimes people are human. They will have a little run that, you know, doesn’t go his way. But he knows that. And he’ll come up with a smile and play the same way he knows how to play,” he had added.