With Gautam Gambhir taking over as the head coach of the Men in Blue and Suryakumar Yadav replacing Rohit Sharma as the team’s T20 captain starting with the Sri Lanka series, a new era has dawned in Indian cricket. Surya, despite leading the team in the shortest format of the game, has fallen out of favour with the selectors in ODI and Test cricket but the batsman has now made it clear that he intends to wear the Indian colours in all three formats.

In a recent conversation with The Times of India, Surya confirmed that he will be present for a single match at the Buchi Babu Invitational multi-day tournament, while also stating that he wants to represent his country in all three formats of the game.

“I want to play for India in all three formats. Playing for Buchi Babu will give me a good practice opportunity for the red-ball tournaments this season,” Surya said.

India chief selector Ajit Agarkar had stated that the selection committee currently views Surya as a T20 player and he is not in the race for a place in the recently concluded ODI series against Sri Lanka.

“No, we haven’t discussed Surya (for the ODIs) right now. Shreyas (Iyer) is back, KL (Rahul) is back. They have had great World Cups (ODIs). Rishabh (Pant) is back too. So there is real quality coming from that middle order. So at this point, Surya is a T20I player,” Agarkar said at a press briefing ahead of the Sri Lanka series.

Notably, Surya was included in the Indian ODI squad during the ODI World Cup last year but his unimpressive performances at the marquee event quickly lost him in the eyes of the selectors. The 33-year-old batsman has played just one Test match so far and makes his debut against Australia at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in 2023.