Right person at the right time: Shreyas Iyer’s Indian era begins

CHENNAI: On a lot of occasions, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are rather slow with their transition plans. But maybe for the first time in a long time, they understood the pulses of the format quite quickly, appointing Shreyas Iyer as the new captain. Iyer is the right man at the right time in the right role for the national team.

After being ignored for close to three years, Iyer makes his return on the back of his stellar CV as a leader in the IPL, first leading Kolkata Knight Riders to a title in 2024, and then following it up with taking Punjab Kings to the final in 2025.

But it wasn’t just his captaincy alone that has tilted things in his favour, it is also his approach to the game, starkly different from how he used to bat at one point in his career. Shedding the anchor role has given Iyer an incredible chance to become an aggressive version of himself, and that version has now got him back into the national setup. Across the last two editions of IPL, he has scored 1102 runs, at an average of 52.83 and a strike rate of 171.94, taking on both spin and pace with 69 sixes. One major concern that surrounded Iyer’s batting when he was out of the T20I setup was how he tackled the short ball, which has now become a thing of the past.

As a captain, Iyer’s CV speaks for itself, and India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir certainly understands his leadership style having worked with him during KKR’s successful run in 2024. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar too marked his recent captaincy form as the reason behind the appointment.

“[Shreyas] Iyer won the final once, and from there a tougher season this year after a great start. We have seen everything that a captain possibly can (handle). His own performances have been really good.

“I’m sure looking at how he has captained in the last few years for his franchise, he’s going to have a good time. You have to really earn it so captaincy is also something that you have to earn and earn the respect of people around you and that is something that all these guys have it,” former India World Cup-winning captain, Rohit Sharma said.However, all of that aside, he still has a tall task in front of him, as even the best of Indian batters have found it tough leading the national side to glory.

The task becomes all the more difficult when the two captains that preceded you were Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav—T20 World Cup-winning skippers.