Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa reckons Suryakumar Yadav might return to Kolkata Knight Riders after the 2026 edition. Uthappa believes SKY might also reunite with Gautam Gambhir at the latter stages of his career.
SKY didn’t have a great run in IPL 2026, scoring 270 runs in 13 matches at an average of 20.77 and a strike rate of 147.54 and thus could not deliver for the five-time champions. The Mumbai batter was also dropped from India’s T20I squad despite leading the team to glory in the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Furthermore, SKY deleted images related to MI from his Instagram account, creating doubts about his future with the franchise.
Robin Uthappa said on CommBoxTV YouTube Channel, “From Surya’s point of view, for all intensive purposes, he might go to KKR. It rekindles the idea that once Gautam Gambhir finishes his stint with the Indian team, he probably goes back into KKR as a mentor or coach. And Surya fits into that as captain with Gambhir as the mentor again.”
Uthappa, the former KKR batter, admitted returning to India’s T20I team will be difficult for Suryakumar Yadav.
“Surya will play until he is 40. Unless he is marred by terrible form and the midas touch is just over. But returning to the Indian side is going to be hard for Surya. He won’t get A cricket at his age. So he won’t get to play on the Australian wickets where the 2028 T20 World Cup will be played,” said Uthappa (via the aforementioned source).
Under SKY’s captaincy, India won 40 out of the 52 T20I matches. However, SKY’s form was not the best in the last 18 months, and he had to pay the price.

