IPL 2023: Suryakumar Yadav restores elusive form against KKR, permanent Mumbai captaincy nearby?

Mumbai Indians have secured a dominant victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday (April 16).

Despite a fantastic start, the visitors lost their way in the final phase of their batting, and then Mumbai took apart the bowling to secure a huge win. Ishan Kishan played a blinder for MI as the southpaw scored 58 runs off just 25 balls.

Apart from two important points and a dominant display, a huge takeaway for Mumbai will be Suryakumar Yadav. The Indian batter has had a struggle so far in this IPL season, but he showed his immense class with an outstanding knock to guide his team to victory.

Suryakumar, who is also known as SKY, returned to form and scored 43 runs off just 25 balls, hitting 4 fours and 3 monstrous sixes. The batter looked in fantastic touch, and some of his shots were clearly signs of more menacing stuff on the way.

But along with the batting, the captaincy of SKY was also something to savour for Mumbai Indians. Rohit Sharma sat as an Impact Player and SKY led the team for toss. As they decided to bowl, the 32-year-old former KKR player also led his current team decently.

His bowling changes were spot on and the decision to keep someone like Riley Meredith for the death overs also played well. Now the question is simple, will we see more of Suryakumar Yadav captaining Mumbai Indians?

The answer looks like a Yes. Suryakumar has previously captained Mumbai in domestic competitions and has done well. Suryakumar is a respected person in the group and there is optimism in the MI camp that he will be a long-term suitor of Rohit Sharma.

With ODI World Cup later this year, there is a strict order on stress management and Rohit Sharma being the India captain may play as an Impact Player in some matches. Suryakumar is poised to lead MI in those matches, which in turn will help to mould him for a bigger role as captain in near future.

Although the official baton won't be passed immediately, but in a couple of years, there is a strong possibility that Suryakumar Yadav will be going into the toss for MI on a regular basis.