2 min readUpdated: Mar 14, 2026 10:02 PM IST
Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting spoke about the leadership qualities that India captain Suryakumar Yadav displayed in his first ever ICC T20 World Cup leading the Indian team and said that SKY struggled as a batter but was still clinical as a captain.
Yadav scored a combined 158 in eight innings at a home World Cup in his favoured format. His best came in a game-saving knock of 84, made from 49 balls, against the USA. Ponting said that a lot of captaincy was off the field, in instances that people don’t get to witness.
“It’s about a lot more about what they do off the field, the things that people don’t see and how they interact with their players,” Ponting said, on The ICC Review. “He didn’t have a great time himself as a player, but still he’s standing at the end holding up a World Cup trophy. I know as a former captain, when you’re not batting at your absolute best, captaincy can become really difficult. And when you are batting well, captaincy can become really easy.”
Ponting then spoke about how the real leadership stories would only come out if people could know how Surya spoke to Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson over the past few weeks. Ponting also said that it wasn’t the core group of players that Surya would have needed to spend time with, but rather the players battling to regain form.
“It would have been really interesting to see how Surya has interacted with Abhishek (Sharam) and Sanju (Samson) over the last few weeks. That’s where the real stories will come out on true leadership.”
“You don’t have to worry about the staples, it’s more the guys on the fringe and the younger guys going up and down with their emotions and battling with their form, the ones you have to spend the most time with,” said Ponting.
