Would love to play Test but T20 mein haath set hai : Suryakumar

World Cup-winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav says he yearns to play Test cricket and finds ODI not his cup of tea, but ultimately his forte is T20 because “usmey apna haath set ho gaya hai.”

In an exclusive podcast interview with PTI, Suryakumar occasionally slipped into charming Mumbaiya Hindi, such as the “haath set ho gaya hai” phrase, which has no decent English equivalent. Roughly translated, he meant to say he is now a master of the shortest format of cricket and is comfortable playing that.

Relaxed throughout the hour-long conversation, clearly on cloud nine after leading India to a hugely successful World Cup campaign, Suryakumar opened up about his disappointment at not playing Test cricket.

He was reminded that he played one Test against Australia. “One inning!” he corrected the interviewer with his typically unabashed smile.

“...what is written in your life, you get that only. I started with red-ball cricket itself, played in the Ranji Trophy for 10-12 years. I played a lot of red-ball cricket in Bombay because if you grow up in Bombay, you start with red ball itself, so everything is around red ball,” he said.

“But gradually, when we started playing white ball cricket, the inclination shifted a bit towards that. And after that, I came to this format (T20). I also tried a lot in one-day cricket to play well in it, but nothing happened there,” he said.

“T20 mein jaisa chal raha tha, usme apna haath set ho gaya hai, aisa bol sakte hain” (The way T20 was working out for me, I had become good at it; you can say that),” he said.

Given an opportunity, would he want to play Test cricket? Without hesitation, he replied, “I would love to, because, as I mentioned, I played red ball cricket from 2010-11 to 2020. So, 10 years is a long time to play red ball, and I was in love with that format. But yeah, obviously, given an opportunity, who wouldn’t want to play Test?” he said.  Still, at 35 years of age, it is virtually impossible for Suryakumar to get into the Test team. His only experience in Test was in 2023 against Australia in Nagpur, when he scored 8 runs in one inning.

The same year he appeared in the ODI World Cup final against Australia, when he scored 18 off 28 balls. India lost the final and Suryakumar has not played in that format ever since.

Asked if ODI has a future, given that T20 provides immense excitement to fans in a short time while Test gives them old-fashioned satisfaction, Suryakumar remained diplomatic, giving the format its due without being too dismissive.

The dwindling number of bilaterals in the format seems to be indicating a decline that might eventually end with ODI becoming obsolete.

“I feel that as much as I have experienced ODI cricket closely and I have seen it, it is a format where you have to bat in three different ways. Sometimes, if you go in early, if wickets fall quickly, then you have to bat like Test cricket.

“Then you have to bat with a good strike rate like a One Day and then later at the end of the innings, you have to bat like (you do in) T20 format. So, that is one format that I never understood. I tried my best to play it. But then it’s a challenging format,” he said.

India’s spin great R Ashwin believes ODIs are dying a “slow death, Pakistan’s Wasim Akram once advised the ICC to scrap them altogether and England’s Kevin Pietersen perceives 50-over cricket to be under most threat amid the ever-expanding T20 universe.

Suryakumar also recalled the emotion that the format managed to stir during the 2023 World Cup.

“...when I was with the team for the 2023 ODI World Cup and I played, then that vibe, the whole atmosphere of that format, the build-up going into the final. That was completely different than what we played in the 2026 and 2024 T20 World Cup.

“So, it’s charm is different, ODI cricket also has a different charm, T20 has a different one,” he explained.