Poor media turnout at Suryakumar Yadav's first press conference as India T20 captain

Suryakumar Yadav addressed his first press conference as India's T20 skipper.

Suryakumar Yadav was on Monday named as India captain for the five-match T20 series against Australia, which begins on Thursday in Visakhapatnam. On the eve of the first match, Yadav addressed his first press conference as India skipper at the YS Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium in the city. The event saw  a poor media turnout, with a senior journalist saying that there were just two journalists at the press conference.

India is facing Australia just four days after the heartbreak in the one-day World Cup final match against Australia.

“From 200 odd media people (during World Cup) to just two in press conference in India is staggering! SKY wouldn’t have imagined this in his first PC as captain. Is this a record with fewest attendance in a press conference in India? I would imagine so,” sports journalist Vimal Kumar wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

From 200 odd media people (during World Cup) to just two in press conference in India is
staggering!

SKY wouldn’t have imagined this in his firstPC as captain.

Is this a record with fewest attendance in a press conference in India?
I would imagine so. pic.twitter.com/O41WbIUKla

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— Vimal (@Vimalwa) November 22, 2023

There were four mics seen placed before Yadav, including those of news agencies ANI and PTI.

“Who is going to turn up three days after the biggest match of the last four years. Shameless scheduling,” X user Bhavik wrote.

“That’s really strange. But probably just a phase, it would pick up,” another user, Manit Rathi, commented.

“Literally no one cares about this series three days after the WC final. Terrible scheduling and it shows. Will be surprised if tomorrow’s game is a full house,” user Aaryan wrote.

Suryakumar Yadav, 33, is one of the only three players retained from India's World Cup squad. The India squad consists of Yadav (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wicket keeper), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar.

Shreyas Iyer will join the squad as vice-captain for the last two T20s, in Raipur on December 1 and in Bengaluru on December 5, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said.

The open match in Visakhapatnam is followed by games in Thiruvananthapuram on November 26 and Guwahati on November 28.