NEW DELHI: India's T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav may have been denied the chance to lift a well-earned trophy, but he remained unfazed, crediting his 14 "priceless" teammates who, in his words, are "as precious as the Asia Cup silverware."

After beating Pakistan for the third time in two weeks to clinch the Asia Cup title, the Indian team made a bold statement by refusing to accept the trophy from Asian Cricket Council chairman Mohsin Naqvi - who also serves as Pakistan's cricket board chief and the country's Interior Minister, known for his anti-India rhetoric.

With the team standing firm in its stance, the presentation ceremony ended abruptly, as Naqvi walked away from the dais with the trophy still in his hands on Sunday night.

"I think this is one thing which I have never seen since I started playing and following cricket that a champion team is denied a trophy. I mean that too a hard-earned one. It's not like it happened easily. It was a hard earned tournament win," Suryakumar replied to a query from PTI on how it felt being denied the biggest prize after winning seven games at the continental showpiece.

"We were here since September 4, we played a game today. Two back-to-back good games in two days. I feel we deserved it. And I can't say anything more. I think I have summed it up really well," the Indian skipper tried to hide his disappointment behind a smile.

But he later shared a heart-warming message for his teammates, singling out the "flavour of the month" Abhishek Sharma, who was seated right beside him.

"If you tell me about the trophies, my trophies are sitting in my dressing room. All the 14 guys with me. All the support staff. Those are the real trophies. These are real moments which I am taking back as lovely memories which will stay with me forever going forward. And that's all."

"When the game is done, only the champions will be remembered and not the picture of a trophy," he later posted on 'X'.

It's been nearly 14 months since he took charge as India's T20 captain, and while his own bat stayed unusually quiet, this was undeniably his biggest tournament yet. The disappointment still lingers, but the moment he reads "India, Asia Cup, 2025 Champions," it instantly fades away.

Suryakumar also kept his composure when a Pakistani journalist accused him of bringing in petty politics on cricket field by refusing to shake hands with his counterpart Salman Ali Agha and also not showing up for the customary pre-final photo-shoot.

When the Indian media manager wanted to stop the scribe, Surya smiled at him and said: "You are getting angry, right? Why are you getting so angry? and you (referring to the journalist) asked four questions in one."

Another Pakistani journalist tried to put him in a spot by asking if he knew about BCCI mailing to ACC that the team won't receive the trophy from Naqvi.

"I don't know what you're saying about the e-mail. I have no idea about this. We took this call on the ground. No one told us to do this.

"And we were waiting. I think if you win a tournament, do you deserve the trophy or not? You tell me," the skipper countered and the scribe from India's neighbouring nation could only nod in agreement.

Through AI, a picture of Asia Cup being held by Surya and Tilak is circulating on social media and when the skipper was asked how did the celebrations go without the trophy, he was ready with a quick repartee.

"You haven't seen the trophy? I have brought it. The team was sitting on the podium. And Abhishek and Shubman have already posted the photo with the trophy. It looks so good. See, how it is."

Surya's cheeky side came out when a journalist asked him to just narrate the chain of events that led to the team not accepting the trophy from the Interior Minister of Pakistan.

"Rinku Singh hit a four. India won the Asia Cup. After that, we came out and we were celebrating and we applauded every player's achievement -- Tilak, Kuldeep and Bhai (Abhishek) got a car. We celebrated that too. So, what more do you want? This was the chain of events that we wanted to achieve.

"And we also saw that the champions' (flexi) board came and went back. We saw that too," he went on.

"It's okay. It keeps on happening. It's a part of life," he shrugged.

(With PTI Inputs)