Not even a week since they completed a commanding sweep over Afghanistan, India’s cricketers are on the cusp of another adventure which will eventually take them to the land where they first shook up the world over 43 years back.
On 25 June 1983, at the same venue where they played their first Test 51 years previously – eerily coincidentally, that game, against England, also started on June 25 – Kapil Dev’s unfancied bunch defied odds of 66 to 1 to lift the (60-over) World Cup, with a stunning conquest of West Indies, the two-time defending champions. That momentous accomplishment changed the face of the sport in the world’s most populous cricket-playing nation. It served as the catalyst for the winds of change that swept through the sport, and is inarguably primarily responsible for where Indian cricket is today.
Lord’s will remain a special ground for Indians, and not because it is touted as the headquarters of cricket. Their first Test, their first World Cup triumph, their extraordinary chase of England’s 325 in the NatWest Trophy final in 2002… They will have to wait until the final day of their crisp outing of Ireland and England, on July 19, to refamiliarise themselves with the (in)famous slope at the world’s most easily recognisable cricket ground. But one can rest assured that they won’t be waiting with bated breath for that tryst.
It might appear somewhat incongruous that with the next global white-ball event being a 50-over competition (the World Cup in the Africas late next year), this trip entails seven T20 Internationals and just three one-dayers. But that’s the nature of the commercial beast. The 50-over World Cup is still the most coveted limited-overs silverware, but outside of the World Cup (and maybe the Champions Trophy), the format doesn’t attract the greatest eyeballs. Most bilateral ODIs are played in front of largely empty stands, though that won’t be the case when Shubman Gill’s side parades its wares in Birmingham and Cardiff before heading to Lord’s for the final stop.
This crisp three-and-a-half-week sojourn will kick off in Belfast on Friday, with the first of two T20Is against hosts Ireland. By all accounts, this is a battle of unequals. India are both the defending T20 World Cup champions and the No. 1 side in the universe, while the Irish are a modest 12th. Expectedly, India have won all eight matches between the sides and the only time they were stretched was in August 2023, in Jasprit Bumrah’s comeback to international cricket as captain of a largely second-string side. In a game badly hit by the weather, India eked out a two-run win on the DLS Method, though had the match gone the distance, they would have overhauled the home side’s middling 139 for seven with greater authority and conviction.
In normal course, a contest against Ireland would fly under the radar, but this clearly isn’t normal course. The man who led the team to the World Cup crown in March has been summarily dismissed, and India have a new T20I skipper. As if that wasn’t dramatic enough, the person who has been tasked with overseeing the team’s fortunes, potentially until the next T20 World Cup in October-November 2028, played the last of his 51 T20Is in December 2023. Wow, you say? Fact can sometimes still be stranger than fiction.
Suryakumar Yadav had already been the undisputed king of the 20-over game for a long time, and it therefore came as no surprise when he succeeded Rohit Sharma as the Indian captain when the latter retired from the format immediately after leading India to the World Cup title in Bridgetown two years back. Hardik Pandya had been Rohit’s long-term deputy and widely touted to succeed the Mumbaikar, but a change of guard at the coaching helm with Gautam Gambhir replacing Rahul Dravid as the head coach perhaps triggered a change of heart too. The choice of Suryakumar as leader, however, was indisputable, and India embarked on a sensational charge under the inventive right-hander, culminating in them becoming the first three-time World Cup champions, as well as the first side to retain the title and emerge champions on home patch.
Plummeting returns
While the team touched dizzying heights, Suryakumar’s individual fortunes went in the exact opposite direction. The same batter who couldn’t put a foot wrong for well on three years – a massive time-frame in the most fickle of formats – could hardly do anything right with the bat from the tour of South Africa in November 2024. A run of no half-centuries in 23 innings spanning 13 months was a huge red flag, but Suryakumar seemed to have arrested the prolonged slump with efforts of 32, 82 not out, 57 not out and 63 against New Zealand in the fortnight leading up to the World Cup.
When he rescued India from a wobbly 77 for six against United States in their tournament opener with a typically flamboyant undefeated 84, there was no indication of what was in store. As his side progressed deep, overcoming the big loss to South Africa in their opening Super 8 encounter in Ahmedabad, Suryakumar’s bat failed to catch fire. There were three 30s but he ended the World Cup with scores of 18, 11 and 0. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had a disastrous season with Mumbai Indians in IPL 2026, mustering an anaemic 270 runs in 13 innings to make it a lot easier for Ajit Agarkar’s selection panel to crack the whip.
It’s not often that the captain of a title-winning team is stripped of his authority for the very next match in the same format, but Agarkar has overseen two such instances. In India’s first ODI since they stormed to the Champions Trophy in Dubai in March 2025, Rohit was replaced as captain by Gill with an eye on the future, though the former at least found a place in the squad and in the XI. This time around, the axe has fallen on not just Suryakumar the captain, but also the batter. It won’t be a stretch to state that the 35-year-old has played his final international game. India are spoilt for choices when it comes to batting options throughout the order, and even if Suryakumar were to reclaim his mojo and make a bucketful of T20 runs for Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and for his franchise in the next IPL, one can’t see him forcing his way back into the selectors’ mind space.
The hunt for his successor ended in Shreyas Iyer, marking one of the more punchy storylines in Indian cricket. Shreyas was put out to T20I pasture after the home series against Australia in December 2023. His numbers even then were anything but shabby. After 51 games, he averaged 30.66 and had a strike-rate of 136.12 but when he was dropped for the World Cup in the Americas and beyond, it seemed as if time had passed him by even though he had age on his side and even though he had led Kolkata Knight Riders to their third IPL crown in 2024.
With typical pugnaciousness and no little flair, Shreyas went on a spree to break down the doors with one terrific season after another in the IPL. Last season, in his maiden outing with Punjab Kings, he became the first captain to take three different franchises to the IPL final, though there was no second successive title run as his team lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the title clash. This year, Punjab seemed a shoo-on for the playoffs after winning six of their first seven games (the other was washed out), but a string of six straight losses meant that not even a century from the captain in a winning cause in their first fixture could secure a top-four finish. That didn’t seem to matter; suddenly, Shreyas’ captaincy skills were now the talk of the town even though he had been a terrific leader for many years before that. It helped, of course, that he stacked up 498 runs (average 55.33, SR 168.81) in the season gone by, cementing his claims ahead of Suryakumar’s World Cup deputy, Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel.
Position of strength
Shreyas is well respected and liked within the group and therefore starts from a position of strength, even though he will inevitably feel the pressure that accompanies a comeback, and that too in a leadership capacity. He has plenty of experience around him to fall back on if he so deems fit, but he has largely been his own man, taking responsibility for his actions and decisions, and that won’t change a huge deal. Much interest will revolve around how he acquits himself as a decision-maker in his early days in charge. Ireland might not be perceived as a major threat but England are a dangerous T20 side, as they reiterated during their near-miss in the World Cup semifinal against India in Mumbai. In England, Shreyas’ tactical and man-management skills will be put through a stern examination.
One would think a new captain who has been installed in such theatrical circumstances would be the obvious headline act. But there is a young man in town who has thrown convention out of the window, so how can anyone other than Vaibhav Sooryavanshi be firmly under the spotlight? Already the youngest to break into the Indian team, the 15-year-old man-child is now poised to shatter Sachin Tendulkar’s record and also become the youngest to represent the country. Whether that comes as early as on Friday, or as the tour unfolds, remains to be seen, but there is no disputing the fact that at some stage in the next fortnight, he will receive his India cap.
Sooryavanshi warmed up nicely for his maiden journey with the senior team with a grand run in Dambulla in a triangular 50-over ‘A’ series which he rounded off with a title-winning 29-ball 94 in the final against Sri Lanka last week. One can’t recall the last time so many switched on their TV sets to watch one cricketer in action. The Orange Cap winner in IPL 2026 is the real deal, never mind his tender age or the fact that he needs a separate changing area as per English rules where those less than 16 aren’t allowed to change in the dressing room. The obvious and clear attraction, Sooryavanshi will shade everything else. Never mind when he plays. What a burden at 15, but also, what a privilege at 15.
