Why Did Suryakumar Yadav Demote Himself To No. 11 Vs Oman? Skipper Explains | Cricket News

Suryakumar Yadav has explained that he demoted himself to number 11 in the 2025 Asia Cup clash against Oman on Friday, to give the rest of his team’s batters a chance to showcase their skills.

With a place in the next round, the Super Four, secured before the match began, India opted to bat first and scored 188/8. Suryakumar was padded up if a ninth wicket were to fall, but the opportunity didn’t arise.

The move drew a lot of frowns in the fraternity, because though better chances to Sanju Samson and Hardik Pandya (key batters who didn’t get a lot of chances to bat in the last two games) were expected, Suryakumar even sent tailenders like Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh ahead of him.

“From our batting point of view, our batters didn’t get a lot of game time, starting from Sanju, Hardik, a lot of them, Axar (Patel), even (Shivam) Dube. Tilak (Varma) also against Pakistan didn’t get a lot of time to bat,” Suryakumar explained in the post-match press conference.

“Harshit, as you may know, he’s someone who can bat. So we wanted to see how he can bat in the last 3 or 4 overs and when 1 or 2 overs were left, Arshdeep said that he wanted to go into bat. I said no problem, you can definitely go in. It’s completely fine, but I bat or I don’t bat, winning the game is more important,” he added.

The questions raised on the Indian skipper went beyond the batting order, too. Former cricketer Rohan Gavaskar wondered whether it wouldn’t have been better to give a chance to Rinku Singh, who was on the bench, if Suryakumar wasn’t planning on batting.

Moreover, one of the Hindi commentators for the match, Vivek Razdan, felt the tactic was ‘disrespectful’ to the sport.

“This game shouldn’t be taken lightly. It should be given as much respect as possible. You have so many more matches to play, and your captain is still waiting to bat at number 11,” he said just before the end of the first innings.