Suryakumar Yadav, India's T20I captain, hasn't given up on Test cricket, even though it's been more than a year since he featured in his only game in the format so far
Not originally included in a largely young Mumbai squad for the pre-season Buchi Babu Invitational tournament in Tamil Nadu, Suryakumar has informed the Mumbai selectors of his availability for the second half of the first-class competition that is set to run until the end of August. He will play under Sarfaraz Khan after requesting the selectors to not change the leadership. It's likely that Suryakumar will feature in Mumbai's fixture against TNCA President's XI starting August 27 in Coimbatore.
"I want to play for India in all three formats," Suryakumar was quoted as saying by the Times of India. "Playing in Buchi Babu will give me good practice for the red-ball tournaments this season."
Suryakumar recently led India to a 3-0 series sweep over Sri Lanka in his first tour as full-time T20I captain. He wasn't picked for the three-match ODI series, with selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar categorically stating that Suryakumar wasn't in their ODI plans for the moment.
With India not playing any more T20Is until the series against Bangladesh in October, Suryakumar has a decent runway of red-ball matches to push for a comeback to Test cricket. The Buchi Babu tournament will be followed by the season-opening Duleep Trophy in Anantapur, which will be contested by four teams picked by the national selectors.
Suryakumar's most recent first-class appearance came in last season's Duleep Trophy in July 2023. Overall, in 82 first-class matches, he has scored 5628 runs and averages 43.62 with 29 fifties and 14 hundreds.