There has been talk among Indian cricketing circles that Shreyas Iyer could replace Suryakumar Yadav as India T20I captain after the Asia Cup 2025 is completed. The talk picked up following the successful stint of Iyer as captain in the Indian Premier league.
Debate on T20I Captaincy Gains Momentum
Over the past couple of IPL seasons, Iyer has demonstrated his leadership qualities by taking two different franchises to the finals. In 2024 he won the trophy with Kolkata Knight Riders, and had earlier taken Punjab Kings to a well-known summit final. He also led them to their maiden IPL final in 2020 when he made his first appearance with Delhi Capitals.
On top of some great captaincy history, Iyer had a fantastic individual season with the bat in IPL 2025 where he managed to score over 600 runs with a crazy strike rate of 175.07 showing his consistency and ability as a T20 hitter. With all this success, Iyer was not selected to be part of the team of India to compete in 2025 Asia Cup in the UAE.
Sandeep Sharma Questions Captaincy Rumours
Former India pacer, Sandeep Sharma, was quick to dispel the idea that because Iyer is in the IPL leadership position, he has the right to become the T20I captain of India.
“See, this debate that he (Iyer) as a captain took his team to the finals is senseless,” Sandeep told Crictracker. “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 that what you do in IPL.”
IPL Leadership vs International T20I Captaincy
As Sandeep puts it, IPL cannot be compared with international cricket in terms of judging leadership. He emphasized that the dynamics of a franchise is totally different as compared to that of a national team.
“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 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,” he said.
Calls for Perspective in T20I Captaincy Debate
Sandeep also encouraged fans and experts not to make simplistic assumptions by equating franchise performance with international leadership.
“So this debate, I feel, is senseless that what is he (Iyer) doing in 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,” he added.
With the Asia Cup just weeks away, the limelight is still placed squarely on Suryakumar Yadav, with Shreyas Iyer still out of the team raising questions about who will lead the Indian T20I team in the future.
