India captain Suryakumar Yadav made a big reveal on the eve of the 2026 T20 World Cup final against New Zealand and said that he and head coach Gautam Gambhir take the tough calls. He was referring to the call to dropAxar Patelfor the Super 8 game against South Africa. The India vice-captain was rested for the last league stage game against the Netherlands and was replaced by Washington Sundar. The team management made the shocking call to keep Axar out for the Super 8 game against South Africa. The Men in Blue suffered a big 76-run defeat.

"Tough calls are taken by Gautam Gambhir and me. Axar wasn’t happy when he was dropped, but these things happen. Sanju, we realised we needed and it was a positive call," Suryakumar said.

Sundar only bowled two overs against SA. He scored 11 runs in the big chase of 188. Axar made his return for the second Super 8 game against Zimbabwe and has been playing regularly since then.

The bowling all-rounder only spent 35 runs in his four-over spell against England in the semi-final. His fielding efforts made a big difference and propelled India to a win in the knockout fixture.

Suryakumar Yadav responds to Mitchell Santner's comment

Suryakumar Yadav reacted to Mitchell Santner's comment. Photo: AP

Suryakumar Yadav responded toMitchell Santner'ssilencing the crowd comment and asked for something new. "Koi naya line toh bolo, sab yahi line chipka rahe (say something new, everyone is saying the same thing). The mood in the camp is very good, we are excited to play in this stadium, it’s a special stadium," he said.

Speaking to the media, Santner had said that it was their "goal" to silence the crowd. "Yeah, I guess that's the goal, isn't it? to silence the crowd... we've seen throughout the whole World Cup that you know, a lot of teams are on similar pages, and it comes down to you know, some little moments... we can upset another big team, and I think there's obviously a lot of pressure on India to win this World Cup at home,” he said.

The final of the 2026 T20 World Cup will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium from 7:00 PM IST on Sunday (March 8). India have never defeated NZ in a T20 WC fixture.

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