Suryakumar Yadav’s reign at the helm of the Indian T20I team will be looked back on fondly. Coming in to lead the world champions after incumbent captain Rohit Sharma and the captain before him Virat Kohli both stepped back, it was a trickier task than most might remember to try and preserve the identity of the Indian team, even with a home T20 World Cup coming up.
In many ways, Suryakumar set the example for what his own successor must do in order to tend this flock, as it were. There is a solid 30-month window leading to the next T20 World Cup, giving whoever does take over some time to get the experience needed. But who are the candidates that are in line to take over the role?
Sanju Samson
Crowned the player of the tournament in India’s T20 World Cup run in 2026, Samson is experienced and knows his way around competitive cricket by now. Just like Suryakumar, he no longer leads a team in the IPL, but has had captaincy experience in the past – not having the pressure of dealing with an IPL team and the national team could serve him well.
Samson’s big issue might be that his role in the team itself is not the safest – openers are a widely-available commodity in modern Indian cricket, and with the likes of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi battering the door down for a run in the team, the BCCI might not opt for a player who will be 34 by the time the next WC rolls around.
Ishan Kishan
Ishan Kishan fought his way back into the international setup and has made the number three position his own for India. For Kishan, the biggest factor in the pro column is the fact that he led his domestic team Jharkhand to great effect in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Captaincy also gets the best out of him as a batter – stepping in for Pat Cummins temporarily this season, he did well on both fronts. His leadership pedigree is solid and clear, but he doesn’t have the dependency of being an all-format star for India.
Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah has been in and around the captaincy picture for India, having led in a couple of Test matches in the past. The first name on the teamsheet for big games, Bumrah has a cool head on his shoulders and an understanding of how the bowling needs to work in T20 games. His presence as an emergency captaincy option in the past is a plus – but what might see him fail to get the nod is the fact that he might be kept on ice, getting time off from T20 tours as India look to extract the most value from him in red ball games. Through no fault of his own, regularity might be what sees him overlooked.
Hardik Pandya
He might have had a poor couple of seasons at MI that saw the franchise implode with reports of disgruntlement and infighting, but Hardik has been in and amongst the conversation of being a future Indian captain since his younger days in the team. Bred of the same self-sure and confident cloth as Virat Kohli, Hardik does bring that charismatic presence to a locker room, and won’t be cowed by the job – he also has success captaining in the IPL with consecutive finals and one trophy for GT. Add to this the fact that he is the most experienced T20 cricketer in the Indian setup with 138 international matches to his name – an ever-present to everything good for India in recent years. The BCCI might be slightly concerned by the issues that have cropped up at MI – is Pandya’s best shot at leadership gone? Or will his personality still have backers on the selection panel?
Shreyas Iyer/Rajat Patidar
With Suryakumar making way, it stands to reason that his replacement will be either Shreyas Iyer or Rajat Patidar after a sequence of a few spectacular seasons, domestically and in the IPL, batting from the same middle order role. One if not both will come into the setup, and the interest to elevate them straight to captaincy can’t be written off. Patidar has captained RCB to consecutive IPL trophies, and has also led Madhya Pradesh in the past.
Even likelier than him is Iyer – for one, the Mumbai batter has captained in the IPL since 2018, so has a lot of experience in this role in high-pressure environments, including alongside Gautam Gambhir as a mentor for KKR in 2024. Secondly, Iyer is also an indian regular, having hammered home his place in the ODI team, with a decent amount of T20 and Test caps under his belt too. He is a natural fit as a leader, and was in the conversation for ODI captaincy last year as well: if he is added to the team, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him pick up the leadership reins as well.
Shubman Gill
Lastly, the option who might be right at the forefront of the conversation for the captaincy is the man who already leads the team in the other two formats. Gill was included in the T20I team towards the back end of 2025, potentially in an attempt to embed him into the setup for the World Cup and help him take over once SKY did move on. Gautam Gambhir has spoken of the importance of an all-format captain, and it cannot be overlooked – they already share a relationship in the longer formats, and that makes him a leading candidate automatically.
Gill’s T20 batting has some question marks: he has plenty of mega run-scoring seasons, but they have come at a relatively pedestrian rate compared to what some of the six-hitting powerhouses in the setup can offer. For Gill, what might matter most towards his T20I candidacy is showing that he has the power game to earn his own spot back in the team as its leader.