Shreyas Iyer As T20I Captain? Former IPL Star Says That’s Not The Right Move

Shreyas Iyer, 30, faced disappointment after being left out of the Asia Cup 2025 squad, extending his absence from India’s T20I roster since late 2023. While Iyer’s IPL record sparkles, as he has lifted the trophy with Kolkata Knight Riders and steered both Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings into finals, success on the domestic stage has not guaranteed leadership at the international level.

Despite his strong record as a T20 leader, debate swirls about whether Iyer deserves the Indian captaincy. Rajasthan Royals pacer Sandeep Sharma, speaking with Crictracker, is clear: domestic success alone is not enough. Sharma used examples like Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma, leaders with very different franchise experiences, to reinforce his viewpoint.

Is IPL Captaincy the Right Benchmark?

“See, this debate that he as a captain took his team to the finals is senseless. Surya is not doing the captaincy of any franchise. So that is not the criteria to be the captain of the Indian side. And for the last three years, Rohit was not doing the captaincy of any franchise. But still, he was the captain of the T20 Indian team and one-day side is still the same captain. And he was the captain of all three formats of Tests. So that is not the criteria of what you do in IPL,” said Sharma to Crictracker.

Sharma insisted that IPL is a domestic league with entirely different pressures, squad dynamics, and selection. “IPL is totally different. It is a domestic league. Like that, BCCI has its own domestic league, right? And when you are picking an international team, there you are picking 15 people. So you pick a captain who will manage 15 people better there. Here in the IPL, you have a lot of domestic players, a lot of young players. Some of them come from overseas. But here you are picking someone who will manage 15 people better here," Sharma explained.

Different Teams, Different Requirements

“So this debate, I feel, is senseless as to what is he Iyer doing in the IPL. These two teams are totally different teams. The Indian team is a totally different team. The IPL team is a totally different team. So I feel people need to learn and people need to understand more about this thing before commenting,” Sharma continued.

A couple of weeks ago, reports also suggested that Shreyas Iyer was being considered as a front-runner to replace Rohit Sharma in ODIs, though BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia dismissed the claims by clarifying that no such discussions had taken place within the board. The speculation came in the wake of Iyer’s omission from the Asia Cup 2025 squad, which only fuelled debates around his role and future in Indian cricket.

Currently Shreyas Iyer returned to competitive cricket on Thursday, September 4, 2025, featuring for West Zone in the Duleep Trophy semi-final against North Zone in Bengaluru. The match at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground B marked his first red-ball outing since captaining Punjab Kings to the IPL 2025 final, where they fell short against champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Iyer had a standout IPL season with 604 runs at a strike rate of 175.07, including multiple half-centuries.

Since his T20I debut in 2017, Iyer has played 51 matches with 1104 runs, an average of 30.67, and a strike rate of 136.13. He has also hit eight fifties with a top score of 74.

As India gears up for the Asia Cup starting September 9 and looks ahead to the T20 World Cup in 2026, speculation persists about whether Iyer will make the playing eleven, let alone wear the skipper’s cap.