India's T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav is in London for sports hernia surgery on his right side and stands to miss several weeks' action, as per a report.
As the Indian Test team, now being skippered by Shubman Gill, gets ready for their five-match series against England, the 34-year-old T20 sensation is making the most of this off-season time in the limited-overs schedule to focus on recovery and overall fitness.
News24 has reported that the surgery is set to commence next week, with Yadav hoping to return to competitive cricket by August.
Though the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has not officially announced anything yet, sources say the rehab may take two months.
The timing is ideal for India's schedule, with the men's side having no T20 International game scheduled until August, when they travel to Bangladesh to face a white-ball series. That tour will be starting a busy T20 period, with home series against the West Indies and South Africa and an away stint in Australia — all representing a vital preparation for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Yadav's aggressive plan to deal with his injury at present is a thinking decision, one that is designed to have him coming back in optimal shape for the next T20 season. He will be missed — the mercurial Mumbai batsman was in mesmerizing form throughout the 2025 Indian Premier League campaign.
Wearing the Mumbai Indians uniform, Suryakumar accumulated a whopping 717 runs from 16 games with a strike rate of 167.9 and an average of 65.18. He also created a record in T20 by scoring 25+ runs in each and every inning, something unseen in the format thus far.
His reliability was the pillar of Mumbai Indians' march into the playoffs, although their season fell short in the penultimate round when they lost to Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2.
Following the IPL, Yadav appeared in the Mumbai T20 League briefly for Triumph Knights MNE. In five innings, he scored 122 runs as much as he could, but the side won only one game and did not qualify for the playoffs.
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