Just as Suryakumar Yadav was headed back towards the dressing room after his fielding drill at the end of India's net session at the Wankhede Stadium, he suddenly chucked the bottle in his hand and rushed towards an opposition player. Saurabh Netravalkar, a former Mumbai bowler and now a USA international, had his back towards Suryakumar while batting in a corner against some kids in UNICEF T-shirts. Suryakumar stealthily crouched into the keeping position and as soon as Netravalkar put away the rubber ball thrown at him, the throng of kids sprinted towards Suryakumar.
Oblivious to who stood behind him, Netravalkar turned around to see the kids getting a piece of Suryakumar; some touching his feet and some shaking his hand as Netravalkar hugged his former Mumbai captain with a beaming smile.
It's a sight you won't get to see around Indian cricketers at overseas grounds or in campaigns away from home. Suryakumar, 35, is set to feature in his fourth T20 World Cup and this one comes with a different platter of challenges, expectations, questions, pressure, and perhaps advantage too of playing at home. The lengthening shadows at the Wankhede on Friday evening were symbolic of his longevity in T20 cricket, having turned out more than 350 times, with 104 of those in international cricket. But such is the cruelty of the sport that despite being a pioneering T20 batter for almost a decade now - a staggering consistency in the most fickle of the three formats - he might largely be judged by how far India go in this World Cup or how many runs he racks up in the next month, especially if he doesn't play the next T20 World Cup.
Questions around Suryakumar's form had started to ring louder as months passed by in 2025. A stretch of 23 innings without a half-century until last month, an average of just 13.62 in 2025 despite playing nine of those 19 innings at home, and a pattern of dismissals that started to get clearer without a squint of the eyes as the T20 World Cup got closer.
As much as Suryakumar has brushed most of the form questions aside with three half-centuries against New Zealand recently, especially with his trademark strokes behind the wicket, the weight of expectations for a title defence and home World Cup campaign will linger over the next four weeks as India go around the country, and Colombo, with the aim of becoming the first team to lift a third T20 World Cup trophy.
Just as Suryakumar had been fronting questions around his form last year, he sat down on Friday to face some as a leader as India begin their World Cup campaign against USA on Saturday. But he didn't wait for anyone to spell out the challenges he has been saddled with.
"Yes, you are playing at home, you are expected to win the tournament the way you have been playing your cricket," he said. "No one has defended the title. No one has won on home soil. Yes, everything runs in everyone's mind. But at the same time, you have to be in the present as well. You have to see what you want to do on the given day, what kind of cricket you want to play. That is very important.
"Just stay in the present. Have your feet where you are, stay grounded. Because when you are playing at home, you want to be more excited. You want to give people more than they expect. At that time, you might make a mistake. But I think staying in the present will be the key in this World Cup. Even though we go till the end, but I think every game we play, we will have to be very relaxed and think about the game we are playing."
As much as he would want to block the outside noise, Suryakumar will be reminded at every step of this World Cup journey that it's a home campaign, as it happened on Friday. When he stepped out to train, someone screamed his name from beyond the boundary. Suryakumar turned around to wave and briefly chat with the person. The ground staff wanted selfies with him. Even when he started to walk down the aisle of the media room after finishing the press conference, several hands that usually reached out to shake hands with him this time emerged a second later to pat him on the back as a gesture to wish him luck for his first World Cup as captain.
"See, as I said, playing at home soil there's always excitement," he had said during the press conference. "I felt that when we played the ODI World Cup in 2023; crowd coming in numbers, people having chat around when you are at the airport. So it's a good thing. It gives you motivation all the time. But yeah, at the same time, it brings a lot of responsibility also that you are getting to lead such a wonderful side, that too in India at home soil, starting at the Wankhede. So boys are very excited to take the field tomorrow and I am sure there will be a lot of excitement.
"I think when you are playing at home, there is always an added pressure. I am not running away from the fact. To be honest, there will be nerves, there will be pressure. But if you see the positive side of it, there will be a lot of cheer around. You are playing on home soil. You know there are people backing you."
Unlike 2023 though - the last ICC men's event to be played in India - the expectations have soared higher for the Indian team, as they have gone on to scale unmatchable heights since the last T20 World Cup. Their win-loss ratio among the 20 participating teams in this World Cup since the last one is hard to rival, especially among Full Members. Their six-hitting firepower is unparalleled, and it only means that India are the overwhelming favourites.
"Talking about expectations, definitely the way we have played in the last one or two years, people must be expecting the same," Suryakumar said. "And we will try giving them more reasons by staying on top, playing the same brand of cricket. There are so many people coming to watch the stadiums. I have told my boys the same thing. There are 30-35 thousand people coming, so many people watching at home. Let's give them a good time. Let's give them entertainment."
Unlike his predecessor Rohit Sharma, who buried the ghosts of November 19, 2023 - a date often used by Indian fans on social media to (not) remember the World Cup final loss - by lifting the T20 World Cup in 2024 and the Champions Trophy in 2025, Suryakumar may not get a second chance. It was also luck, Rahul Dravid had said, that evaded India in the 2023 final despite doing all that they could.
India's T20 superstars have now come together like never before. But will the stars align for Suryakumar?