Suryakumar Yadav meets Amit Shah, to lead Mumbai in SMAT

T20WC winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav meets Union Home Minister Amit Shah

New Delhi, November 10

The meeting with Shah, Suryakumar said, "was one of those rare meetings that push the frontiers one never knew existed".

Posting on X, the Indian batting star said, "Glad to have met Hon'ble Union Home Minister Shri @AmitShahJi with my family. It was one of those rare meetings that push the frontiers one never knew existed. Truly inspired by the sagacity of his vision, which spans an extraordinary range of subjects, from national security to sports and spirituality."

Meanwhile, on the work front, Suryakumar will be leading the Mumbai side during the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) starting from November 14 onwards. The tournament will also witness Indian internationals Shardul Thakur, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube and Tushar Deshpande in action. Shardul makes his return to competitive cricket after missing the first leg of the Ranji Trophy due to a finger injury.

Mumbai have opted to split captaincy this season after Shardul had led them across all formats last time. Veteran batter Siddesh Lad was named as the captain for the Ranji Trophy and has been doing well as a batter and captain, leading the side to four successive wins. Suryakumar, who did not find a place in the red-ball side, has been given the T20 captaincy.

The 36-year-old, who was removed from the Indian T20I captaincy and squad after the T20 WC triumph in favour of Shreyas Iyer, will be gunning to do well to earn a Team India recall after underwhelming T20 WC and the IPL campaigns. In nine T20 WC matches, he made 242 runs at an average of 30.25, with a strike rate of 136.72, with his 84 against the USA doing the heavy lifting. He could score just 270 runs in 13 matches for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL in 13 matches at an average of 20.76, with two fifties.

Mumbai squad for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Atharva Ankolekar, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Shams Mulani, Divyaansh Saxena, Maxwell Swaminathan, Suved Parkar, Musheer Khan, Shardul Thakur, Sarfaraz Khan, Mohit Avasthi, Sairaj Patil, Sylvester D'Souza, Shivam Dube, Hardik Tamore.

— ANI