Suryakumar Yadav, ready in waiting

Against the deep orange seats of the Narendra Modi Stadium, Suryakumar Yadav's blue stood out.

Arriving in full match kit, the Indian captain had come for the pre-match press conference on the eve of the T20 World Cup final. New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner had done the same earlier in the day.

Around him, practice moved in training colours. Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, and Tilak Varma faced offspinners in the nets. Suryakumar was not part of those drills. Instead he stood in the middle, watching, occasionally joining batting coach Sitanshu Kotak as they oversaw the session, dressed as if the toss might be called any moment.

In some ways, the scene felt familiar. For much of his career, Suryakumar Yadav had looked ready before the opportunity arrived.

His international debut finally came in 2021, in a T20I against England at this very stadium, when he was already 30. By then he had spent seasons in domestic cricket and the IPL, admired for a batting range that could reach parts of the field others rarely used.

The India cap took its time. By the time it arrived, the global game was quickly shifting. England's white-ball revolution had changed the language of the format. India's captain then, Virat Kohli, spoke often about the "template" and Suryakumar seemed to arrive already carrying one.

His batting carried the freedom Kohli referenced. Scoops, pick-up shots, and powerful sweeps felt like second nature. No one was surprised when it took him exactly two games to produce a match-winning innings.

Five years later, he returns to the place of his debut in a very different role. Come Sunday, he will walk out as captain in a home World Cup final.

It is almost symbolic that Suryakumar's captaincy began in the shadow of the 2023 World Cup final defeat at this very ground. With Rohit resting, he was handed the chance to lead and impressed, guiding India to a 4-1 series win.

The full transition took longer. Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid stayed on through the following year, winning the T20 World Cup in 2024, and only then did the team fully pass into Suryakumar's hands.

By then, though, India were already playing the kind of cricket that mirrored his instincts, shaped in large part by the captain he succeeded, Rohit Sharma.

The humour Suryakumar brings to press conferences also feels borrowed from that school.

"Sir, the shoes are mine only, but the footsteps were his," Suryakumar joked when asked about stepping into Rohit's shoes. "It was not difficult. The way he left things, I got to learn a lot from him when I was playing under him. I followed the same strategy, the same funda, going into the dressing room, along with the experience of Gautam [Gambhir] which was also very vital. I played a lot of cricket with Rohit, so I know how he worked. I tried to implement the same things, with a few thoughts of my own as well."

Among the ideas he inherited was a dressing room that does not live and die by personal milestones.

"No one focuses much on personal milestones," Suryakumar proudly said. "It's a team game. If someone scores 21 runs in seven balls, like Tilak [Varma] did the other day, that can be just as important as someone getting a fifty or a hundred."

What Suryakumar has tried to add in his own way is freedom. "When I started leading this team, after five or six months I understood that idhar baap bhai banke kuch nahi hoga. Nothing will happen by being a big brother or a father. They have to be left alone. Nothing will happen by holding on to their ears. They have to be left free. Only then can they give their best. I have seen that when they get that freedom, they become a different character on the ground.

"I just told them that you play the same way that you are playing. State cricket, franchise cricket, international cricket. India's logo is there, the emotion is different. But at the same time, what has been successful for you, just keep following that."

Having led Mumbai many times before, Suryakumar was not entirely new to the responsibility when he took it up. But leading India in a World Cup final at home, he admits, carries a different kind of weight.

"It is obviously a special feeling that I am going to lead [in a home World Cup final]. Very excited. Of course there are nerves. There will be butterflies in the stomach. But as I always say, where there is no pressure, there is no fun."

On Sunday night in Ahmedabad, when he walks out for the toss, the moment he has long looked ready for will finally arrive.