‘Not surprised’ - Mohammad Kaif's honest admission on Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy removal

Former Under-19 World Cup winning captain for India, Mohammad Kaif has given his assessment on the reported removal of Suryakumar Yadav as India’s T20I captain despite leading the Men in Blue to T20 World Cup glory in March 2026.

It is being widely reported that the Mumbai Indians batter is going to be sacked as India captain citing his poor run with the bat. The selectors are now reportedly looking at someone else to take on the responsibility.

Kaif, reacting to the reports, exclaimed that he is not at all surprised with the saga and noted that similar kinds of things have happened in Indian cricket before, citing the example of Rohit Sharma’s removal as white-ball captain despite winning the 2025 Champions Trophy.

"I am not surprised. I was only shocked when Rohit lost captaincy. After that, all this seems normal. It is a big call. But Rohit's call was a triple bigger call than this. Because that has already happened, I feel they also want to balance it out now to show it was not only with Rohit, and this is our pattern in the future as well," Kaif said on his YouTube channel.

Suryakumar Yadav is having a horrible run with the bat, and that was very much evident in IPL 2026 where he represented Mumbai Indians. Despite all of that, Kaif believes that the Mumbai batter deserves to retain his Indian team spot as a batter at least.

"I feel that Surya won the trophy as captain, so he deserves to be in the team. Yes, he is not scoring runs. But we want the trophy to be with us and for the Indian team to keep doing well. If India is doing well but Surya is not scoring, I feel you are going too deep. He is doing well as a leader, so he should get more chances. He is a proven player. He is not scoring, yes, but his record has been brilliant. The winning captain deserves to be backed more," he further stated.

Suryakumar Yadav enjoyed a stellar T20I career, smashing 3272 runs with an incredible average of 162.94, which also includes four centuries.