India’s T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav, was on fire against Sri Lanka on Saturday (July 27). In the first T20I of the ongoing three-match series, the 33-year-old right-handed batter scored 58 runs for the Men in Blue. Surya came out to bat at No. 3 for India, and during his 26-ball stay at the crease, he hammered eight fours and two sixes.
For his superb show with the bat, Surya won the Player of the Match award in the series opener. The POTM award helped him equal Virat Kohli’s world record of most POTM awards in T20I history. Surya, who made his T20I debut for India in March 2021 against England in Ahmedabad, has 16 POTM awards to his name in 69 matches played so far, whereas Kohli finished his career with 16 awards in 125 matches.
The former Indian captain played his last T20I for India against South Africa in Barbados last month during the T20 World Cup 2024 final and scored 76 runs. For his top show with the bat, the 35-year-old Kohli won the POTM award.
In the list of batters with the most POTM awards in T20Is, Surya and Kohli are followed by Zimbabwe’s T20I captain Sikandar Raza, who has 15 POTM awards to his name. India’s Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma is in third place with 14 awards.
