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Suryakumar Yadav Shows PM Modi His T20 World Cup Gold Medal at Diwali Meet
A festive visit in New Delhi turned into a show-and-tell moment as the Prime Minister held the medal from India's 2026 title win.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met India cricketer Suryakumar Yadav and his family in New Delhi on Friday as part of Diwali celebrations, and the star of the visit was the gold medal from India's 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup win. Video of the meeting shows Modi holding the medal and taking a close look at it.
Suryakumar wore the medal during the interaction, and his family joined him. The moment blended a festival tradition with a sporting milestone: a national celebration with one of the faces of the team's latest triumph.
Modi later posted about the meeting on X. "In the atmosphere of Diwali, the arrival of Ram and Saryu has taken place. This has made the environment of Diwali even more sacred and divine," he wrote.
Why does the medal matter so much? Under Suryakumar's captaincy, India won the 2026 T20 World Cup, following the 2024 triumph. That made India the first team to successfully defend the men's T20 World Cup title. He also led India to the 2025 T20 Asia Cup title.
Suryakumar's individual record backs up the leadership story. He was ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year in 2022 and 2023, reached the top of the ICC T20I batting rankings in October 2022, and hit a career-best rating of 910 points in January 2023.
The meeting also lands at a delicate point in his career. His time as T20I captain ended after the 2026 tournament, and the BCCI named Shreyas Iyer as his successor. Suryakumar was also left out of India's T20I squad for the UK tour, with matches against Ireland and England.
So the Diwali visit worked as a warm footnote to a historic run: a champion captain, a medal, a family, and a Prime Minister keen to hold the prize. Read the original report here.
FiledUnited KingdomNarendra ModiWorld CupAsia CupCricketPunjab
