Watch: Suryakumar Yadav openly laughs at Gautam Gambhir's 'never used Surya to best of his potential' regret

India's newly-appointed T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav has responded to a recent remark from Gautam Gambhir about him.

Before becoming Team India's head coach, Gautam Gambhir had rued his failure to identify Suryakumar Yadav's true potential as a batsman. The right-handed batsman played under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir at Kolkata Knight Riders from 2014 to 2017. In those four years, Suryakumar Yadav did play a number of good knocks but could not really establish himself as a big name.

His fortunes finally changed when he was signed up by Mumbai Indians in 2018. In no time, the Mumbai star became one of the best batters in the league and went on to make his debut for Team India in 2021. And as Suryakumar thrived at Mumbai Indians, Gautam Gambhir regretted his failure to identify the star batter's true potential.

"A leader's role is to identify the best potential and show it to the world. If there is one regret I have in my seven years of captaincy is that me and as a team never managed to use Suryakumar Yadav to the best of his potential," Gautam Gambhir had told Sportskeeda in May this year.

"And the reason was down to combinations. You can only play one player at No. 3. And as a leader, you have to think about the other 10 players in the XI as well. He would have been way more effective at No. 3, but was equally good at No. 7," he added.

Suryakumar Yadav responds to Gautam Gambhir's comments:

As Suryakumar Yadav was addressing the media ahead of the first T20I against Sri Lanka, one of the journalists asked him about Gambhir's comments about him. In reply, the India captain came up with a reply that left the reporters in splits.

"To abhi karlenge pura potential ko use (Let him make the most of it now)," said Suryakumar.

Speaking further, the 33-year-old opened up about the close bond he shares with Gambhir. Although Suryakumar parted ways with KKR in 2018 just like Gambhir did, both of them have remained in touch over the years.

"Our bond has been special since 2014, and it's been 10 years now. In 2018, we went to two different IPL franchises but remained in touch. We kept discussing performances, matches, and where I could do better.

"So the process of learning continued, and it remained a very special bond for me. In the last 3-4 days, we haven't talked much, but he knows if I want to say something and vice versa and he understands me even if I don't say anything. So, I'm really excited," said Suryakumar.

Watch here (from 15:00):

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The upcoming series marks the beginning of the Suryakumar-Gambhir era as the captain and the coach. They will be hoping that Team India begins the journey on a winning note. India will be in action on Saturday (July 27) when they take on Sri Lanka in the first T20I.