Introduction
The cruelest phrase in Indian cricket is ‘not in the system.’ For years, Suryakumar Yadav was one of the most destructive T20 batters in India — consistently scoring 400+ runs per IPL season, with a strike rate above 150, against the best bowling attacks in the world. And he was consistently not selected for India. National selectors passed him over. International tours came and went. Other batters received opportunities. Suryakumar played his 50th IPL match, his 75th, his 100th. By the time India finally picked him in March 2021, he had played 101 IPL matches without a T20I cap. He now has a T20I batting average and strike rate that is, statistically, the greatest in the format’s history.
The Long Wait — What 101 Matches Without Selection Means
To play 101 IPL matches without national selection, a player must have been in IPL squads for approximately 7-8 seasons. They must have been considered valuable enough by franchises — who pay significant sums and have every incentive to select the best available players — to be retained season after season. But they must simultaneously have been considered insufficient for national selection. For Suryakumar, the explanation was never clearly articulated by selectors. He was hitting the ball through gaps that didn’t exist, playing shots that commentators had no vocabulary for, scoring at rates that were statistically unprecedented for Indian T20 batters. And repeatedly not being selected. The frustration of that period — visible occasionally in interviews — was the background to one of cricket’s most complete vindications.
The Debut and What Followed
Suryakumar Yadav’s India T20I debut came against England in March 2021. He scored 57 off 32 balls. India’s selection system, which had spent years finding reasons to overlook him, could no longer sustain the argument for his exclusion. What followed is the most extraordinary batting career in T20 international cricket history: he reached the top of ICC T20I batting rankings in 2022 and held them for a sustained period, became the first batter to score multiple T20I centuries in a calendar year, and won the ICC T20I Cricketer of the Year award. By 2026, he is regarded as the best T20 batter in the world.
What the IPL Gave and What It Took
Suryakumar’s 101 IPL matches without selection were not wasted years. They were the preparation period in which he developed, refined, and standardised every shot in his 360-degree batting repertoire. The ramp over third man. The scoop over fine leg. The inside-out drive over cover. The pull to deep midwicket off a ball pitching on off-stump. These shots do not emerge fully-formed. They are developed through thousands of balls in practice and hundreds of high-pressure T20 deliveries in matches. By the time India finally gave him the opportunity he had been earning for a decade, he was a complete T20 batter in a way that no shortcut could have produced. The wait was cruel. The result was worth it.
DID YOU KNOW? Suryakumar Yadav won the IPL 2025 Most Valuable Player award with 717 runs — the most runs by any non-opener in any T20 tournament in history. He was also the IPL 2025’s leading scorer overall alongside Sai Sudharsan.
Final Verdict 101 IPL matches. Then India. Then the best T20I batting average in history. Suryakumar Yadav’s story is cricket’s most complete answer to the question of what happens when you refuse to give up on a talent that the selectors won’t see.