“That is as big a surprise for me” - Ricky Ponting defends Suryakumar Yadav to find form ahead of mega event

Former Australian legendary captain Ricky Ponting has backed Indian T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav to get back to his red-hot form ahead of the forthcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, scheduled to start on Saturday, February 7, in India and Sri Lanka.

For the uninitiated, Surya could score only 218 runs in 19 innings at an average of 13.62, with a modest strike rate of 123.16 in the calendar year 2025, with the highest score of an unbeaten 47 against Pakistan.

"That is as big a surprise for me, just looking at his recent form. He is such a solid and consistent contributor for India in T20 cricket for a long time and just hasn't been able to find it of late,” Ponting said on The ICC Review.

"He is an interesting one because when I have seen him play his best, he has taken six or eight or 10 balls to get going and then just lets it all go," he added.

"He plays all of his shots and backs himself, and a bit like Travis Head, where it almost looks like they don't ever fear getting out. That's what I would say to him. I would be saying, think about scoring runs, do not think about getting out,” he stated.

"Trust yourself, back yourself. You are proven to be as good as anybody in the world in the T20 format and go and prove it to everybody once again," he concluded.

Notably, Team India is placed in Group A alongside Namibia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and the United States and will commence the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 against the USA on February 7 in Mumbai.

India's squad for T20 World Cup 2026: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vice-capt), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (wk).

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