Suryakumar Yadav's case: Does captaincy take a toll on the performance of a player?

Suryakumar Yadav has been struggling to score runs. (AFP Photo)

Does captaincy take a toll on the performance of a player? Can this additional responsibility affect the primary area of specialisation? Cricket has debated this for ages, with no convincing conclusion. Big names excelled in the dual role. Equally big names saw their own graphs dip when leading.

Suryakumar Yadav makes for an interesting study in this context. He was given the job ahead of Hardik Pandya after the retirement of Rohit Sharma from this format following the T20 World Cup last year. He had led before that as well and his overall record in 20 games is 15 wins, four losses and a tie. Thirteen of these games were played after the dramatic triumph highlighted by his catch to dismiss David Miller in the last over of the World Cup final.

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While that’s an impressive record, SKY’s run with the bat hasn’t been as good of late. He averages 29.26 as captain as against a career average of 39.33. In 12 matches since the World Cup, he has aggregated 256 runs and 31 in the last five. Evidently the choice of the selectors as captain looking ahead to next year’s T20 World Cup, he needs runs under his belt.

With SKY as captain, India have played an ultra-aggressive brand of cricket with the bat. It’s clear that they want to be relentless throughout and this ploy has a high probability of succeeding in the subcontinent. Considering that the next World Cup will be played in India and Sri Lanka, this is certainly the way ahead. However, the skipper hasn’t quite got going.

SKY has often fallen while trying to champion his team’s philosophy. He is trying to cut loose before even playing five or six balls. There have been too many shots early in the innings which led to dismissals. In the ongoing series against England, this high-risk approach backfired in the first three games. On every occasion, he tried to make things happen and perished.

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There is no reason to ask the 34-year-old to change his methods. This is what makes him the world’s No. 1 T20I batter. Players like him always tread a thin line. The day it comes off, people run short of adjectives. The day it doesn’t, it looks ordinary. That SKY averages close to 40 despite the recent slump and has a strike rate of 167.70 shows that he has had more success than failure.

However, public memory is short and few will remember that he often relinquishes the No. 3 slot to a youngster like Tilak Varma. Runs from SKY’s bat is what everyone will look for including the selectors. Having gone without a substantial amount of those in recent times, the Mumbaikar has to get a few, before talks start doing the rounds that captaincy is adversely affecting his batting.