Forgetful like Rohit, selfless like Rohit: Suryakumar Yadav vs Oman at Asia Cup

India overhauled their batting order in a strategic move during their Asia Cup Cup Cup 2025 group match against Oman in Abu Dhabi on Friday, 19 September. Captain Suryakumar Yadav, despite being padded up, did not come out to bat, signalling the team's intent to give meaningful time in the middle to their middle and lower-order players ahead of the high-stakes Super 4 stage.

Suryakumar’s decision to give up his batting spot for the team’s sake reminded fans of Rohit Sharma’s selfless move to vacate his opening slot during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year. Incidentally, Suryakumar had already drawn laughs at the toss when he struggled to recall the team changes. After the slip-up, he joked that he had “become like Rohit”, making a light-hearted reference to the former captain’s well-known forgetful nature.

Having already secured their place in the Super 4s with consecutive wins, India treated the Oman fixture as a chance to test their batting order, which remained largely untensed after comfortable wins over Pakistan and the UAE earlier in the tournament.