Sunday’s innings in Dharamsala made it 21 T20Is for Suryakumar Yadav without a fifty. For a player who once made run scoring in international cricket feel inevitable, that number now sits uncomfortably.

There is no escaping it anymore. Suryakumar Yadav is out of form.

The dip is not new. His runs had begun to dry up as early as 2024, although the strike rate remained high enough to mask the problem. For a batter who plays at a naturally high tempo, that was acceptable. He was still striking the ball well, still influencing games in short bursts.

But 2025 has been a different story. The runs have dipped sharply, and so has the strike rate. Across 20 T20Is this year, Suryakumar is averaging 14 at a strike rate of 125. To find numbers this stark, one has to go back nearly a decade, to a phase when his game was still being built.

And yet, after Sunday’s game, the India captain insisted that he was not out of form.

“I’ve been batting beautifully in the nets,” Suryakumar said after the third T20I against South Africa. “I’m trying everything that’s in my control. When the runs have to come, they’ll definitely come. I’m looking for runs. Not out of form, but definitely out of runs.”

Suryakumar Has Been Here Before
It is not unfamiliar territory for him. Ahead of IPL 2025, Suryakumar had scored back-to-back ducks against England. It did not matter then. He went on to have one of his best IPL seasons, crossing 700 runs at a strike rate of 168. Domestic form followed international struggle, and the rhythm returned.

Doing that in T20Is, however, is far more difficult. Largely because of the situations he now walks into.

India’s batting structure has changed over the last year. When Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma were opening the innings, India played with freedom. It was not always safe, but it was fluid. The powerplay overs were chaotic in a productive way, and the pressure rarely travelled deep into the middle order.

That changed ahead of the Asia Cup, when Shubman Gill was forced back into the T20I side. Samson was first pushed down the order and then phased out of the team altogether. The sstarsbecame more secure, but also more restrained. And the pressure that once sat at the top began arriving later, often when Suryakumar walked in.

Returning to form is difficult in any circumstances. Doing it while entering under pressure, with a scoreboard to repair and expectations built on reputation, makes it harder still.

Sunday in Dharamsala offered a glimpse of that struggle.

Batting against Lungi Ngidi, Suryakumar decided to cut loose after soaking in pressure for a while. He had had enough of South Africa’s pace dominance. He flat batted the ball over mid off, which fell just inside the boundary rope, for a onone-bounceour. The shot was not clean. It came off the upper half of the bat, but it had enough on it to beat the field.

On the very next ball, bowled slightly shorter than the last one, Surya found time, rocked back, and pulled the ball hard for four through the leg side.

That is what confidence does to a struggling batter.

However, it did not last long. Trying to play his familiar clip over fine leg soon after, Suryakumar picked out the fielder inside the fence. Another start ended before it could settle.

Surya's High Peak, Then a Steep Fall
This is the longest stretch Suryakumar Yadav has gone without a T20I fifty. But perhaps the comparison itself is unfair. His peak was not merely good. It was among the greatest formats the format has seen. Measuring every phase against that version of Suryakumar was always going to distort the present.

There have been suggestions that captaincy is weighing on him. Others believe the constant shifting of roles and batting positions has disturbed his rhythm. Both arguments hold weight. But as captain, Suryakumar also has the power to fix at least one of those issues. He has not done so, perhaps because he believes the team’s needs come first.

Versatility has always been his greatest strength. Now, it may also be his biggest test.

There are two ways to look at this slump. One, where it remained hidden because India’s top order, particularly Abhishek Sharma, did enough damage early on. Or another, where Suryakumar’s lack of runs has begun to show in the team’s output.

On Sunday, India scored 60 runs in the first five overs while Abhishek was batting. After his dismissal, it took the next 10 overs to add another 60. The contrast was stark.

At the moment, Suryakumar Yadav is yearning. He knows his touch is good. He knows the work is being done. But the runs refuse to follow. And the longer that gap lasts, the heavier it becomes.

Form, for a batter like him, does not return in fragments. It arrives with time in the middle, with an innings long enough to let the mind settle and intent turn into flow. Until that happens, the search will continue.

India can afford patience. Whether yearning allows it is another matter.