Gautam Gambhir-Suryakumar Yadav era lay foundation stone for golden days to come in Indian cricket

Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh were Team India's death bowlers a month ago but exactly 30 days after the historic T20 World Cup triumph, it's Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh who emerged as the new go-to bowlers in the death overs. Welcome to the Gautam Gambhir era.

The moment Gauti took over the charge of the Indian Cricket Team, the first major decision he made was to appoint Surya as the skipper of the T20 side.

The world had already seen what Sky, the batter was capable of, but Surya proved GG's decision of trusting him with captaincy the right call as Team India whitewashed Sri Lanka in Gambhir's first confinement as India's Head Coach.

Interestingly, it was none other than Surya who won his 5th Player of the Series award. Interestingly, he is 2nd only to Virat Kohli on the list of most Player of the Series awards in T20Is, with the former India captain winning 7. However, Surya has played 26 series less than Virat.

Gambhir is known to be a bowlers' captain but he also proved to be a bowlers' coach in the final T20I vs the Lankans. If defending low totals is an art, Gambhir was the Picasso of it during his playing days. Who can forget bowling out RCB for just 49, when KKR was defending a mere 131 during an IPL 2017 match.

He may not be directly involved with the game now, but it seems that Gauti's fierce brand of cricket rubbed off on Surya, the captain as well.
In the 1st match, Riyan Parag bowled in the death. In the 2nd T20I, it was Axar Patel but Surya surprised in the final game when he threw the ball to Rinku Singh to bowl the 19th and took up the responsibility of bowling the final over. The result: A match which was in Sri Lanka's bag, went into the Super Over and India emerged victorious from nowhere.

Suryakumar Yadav shining bright under Gambhir is not today's phenomenon but GG has been rooting for him ever since Sky played under him at KKR. Gambhir saw the potential Surya had and clearly, Sky picked up the tricks of the trade from Gauti's bag.

It might have been just 1 series but early signs prove that Surya over Hardik Pandya as the T20I skipper was a master stroke by Guru Gambhir and is something that separates him from the rest.