Former India opener Robin Uthappa has weighed in on Suryakumar Yadav’s recent slump, offering his perspective at a time when the Indian captain is under the scanner. With the T20 World Cup approaching and Suryakumar set to lead the side, his form has become a growing concern for the Men in Blue. Once the ICC’s top-ranked T20I batter, Suryakumar has endured a prolonged dip since the last T20 World Cup. Across 31 matches, he has scored 448 runs at an average of 17.92, striking at 143.13. The numbers have worsened in 2025, with just 218 runs from 21 games, a strike rate of 123.16, an average under 14, and no half-centuries to his name this year.
Uthappa drew a comparison between MS Dhoni’s lean patch during the 2007 T20 World Cup and Suryakumar's current struggles, suggesting that teams often back proven match-winners despite a dip in form, trusting their ability to deliver on the biggest stage.
"I remember that Dhoni wasn't in the best of form. If I'm not wrong, I don't think he got more than one or two fifties in the entire World Cup, and the final was one of those. He was not in very good form. It's happened before, where teams have carried important players who were not in good form because of what they can potentially do; they're match-winners," Uthappa said on His YouTube channel.
Dhoni had a modest run with the bat in the 2007 T20 World Cup, scoring 154 runs across seven innings at a strike rate of 128.33. He hit 13 fours and three sixes in the tournament.
“Don't think SKY is out of form”: Uthappa
Uthappa also came out strongly in defence of Suryakumar, pushing back against the growing narrative around his form. Drawing from first-hand observation, he explained the difference between being out of form and simply being short of runs, insisting that what he saw in the nets reflected a batter very much in rhythm.
"I don't think SKY is out of form. People who haven't played cricket at a certain level will not understand when we're saying he's not out of form, he's out of runs. Ollie Pope is out of form, Shubman Gill looks out of form. In this series, I've watched SKY bat in the nets. Boy, he was hitting shots in fog. He was hitting full-length balls over third man for six. Like what he did in the IPL, he was doing that, off the front foot. You can't do that if you're not in form," he concluded.