Suryakumar Yadav told to not bat ‘too conservatively’ in T20 World Cup 2026; ‘must trust batters to come in after him’

Suryakumar Yadav's calculative approach in the middle orders in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026 while batting first, has been described as "dangerous" by former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar. The Indian captain was completely out of form for the whole of last year, before returning back to form in the T20I series against New Zealand.

Since then, the right-hander has been in phenomenal touch, standing tall when the team needed. After bailing the Men in Blue with a 49-ball 84 against United States of America (USA), the Indian skipper has played as the situation demanded against the likes of Pakistan and Netherlands.

While he scored 29-ball 32 against Pakistan, Suryakumar scored 28-ball 34 against Netherlands. According to Manjrekar, Suryakumar believes he is the guy who's got to control the innings, calling it a "dangerous tactic". “When you're setting targets of 200 plus, winning scores, if you have somebody in the top four who believes that he's the guy who's got to control the innings and make sure that he's the one who'll take India to a certain score, that is a very dangerous tactic," Manjrekar said in video posted on Instagram.

"And considering that India have such fantastic players with Axar Patel at number eight or Washington Sundar at number eight, no batter must think like that,” added the former India batter. The 60-year-old also stated that the Indian captain must trust his batters who come after him.

“He must trust the batters to come in after him and try and maximise returns every ball that he faces. When you have such depth in your batting, I don't think one batter, a single batter, should play in with this feeling that he's got to control the innings," he further added.

"That is the danger where you'll bat first and just not get enough runs on the board because you've just played too conservatively and there are wickets in hand, but you've not used your resources, and you've just got 180 runs against a strong chasing team. So, Surya has got to be careful about that,” added Manjrekar, who has now turned commentator.

‘Pulled down the shutters’

Manjrekar opined, Suryakumar and Tilak Varma's conservative batting isn't helping India as the lower-order big-hitters aren't really tapped into as much as the team management wants. “There's something I'm seeing in Suryakumar Yadav, which I'm not liking too much. 77 for 6, India against USA at Wankhede," said Manjrekar.

“And Suryakumar Yadav had to change his game, which he did brilliantly. Just slowed down a little bit and then exploded and got a great score, player of the match and everything. Since then, I think he's taking that a bit too far. Against Pakistan, when India lost a couple of wickets, he really pulled down the shutters quite a lot,” he continued.

“He and Tilak Varma, both playing slightly conservatively. And in the end, what happens is people like Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, and Rinku Singh are not really tapped into as resources as much. In T20 cricket, that's a dangerous thing to do, when a senior player or a captain feels that he's got to stay in, especially batting first,” concluded Manjrekar.

Catch the live action of the T20 World Cup 2026 with the complete T20 World Cup 2026 Schedule, and the T20 World Cup 2026 Points Table. Also, know who are currently leading the charts for Most Runs in T20 World Cup 2026 and Most Wickets in T20 World Cup 2026.