Suryakumar Yadav’s heroics saved India from a major upset against USA in their ICC T20 World Cup 2026 opener in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
The batting order collapsed, with batsmen unable to time the ball cleanly and aerial attempts consistently picking out fielders.
At one point, the Men in Blue found themselves down 77-6 after nearly 13 overs, but in this chaos, it was Suryakumar Yadav with a captain’s knock for the ages, pushing his side to a respectable total that they would ultimately manage to defend.
This effort paid off by pushing him past India’s modern-era great Virat Kohli on an elite T20I record list.
Most POTM Awards For India In T20Is: Surya Tops List
India’s captain, Suryakumar Yadav, was adjudged Player Of The Match (POTM) for his heroic innings of 84 off 49, which helped India post 161 runs on the board, a total which they would defend by 29 runs.
With this, he has now won 17 POTM awards for India in the shortest format, which is one more than Virat Kohli.
He has also reached the mark in much lesser innings (105) than Kohli (125), which further highlights his impact in this form of the game.
Here are the top 5 players with most POTMs for India in T20Is:
1) Suryakumar Yadav – 17
2) Virat Kohli – 16
3) Rohit Sharma – 14
4) Axar Patel – 8
5) Yuvraj Singh – 7
Globally, Surya has won the third-most POTMs in T20Is thus far, and is not far off from the top. Given the form that he is in at the moment, he can easily rise to the summit.
T20 WC 2026: India’s Remaining Schedule
After their victory against USA, India are gearing up to face Namibia in New Delhi this week on February 12, 2026.
Post that, the defending champions have two more Group Stage fixtures to play:
India vs Pakistan – February 15, 2026
India vs Netherlands – February 18, 2026
If India qualify to the Super 8s stage, they will play more games in the tournament.
