MUMBAI, JUN 6 (PTI): Winds of change swept across India’s T20I set-up as Shreyas Iyer on Saturday took over the captaincy from Suryakumar Yadav, and wonder kid Vaibhav Sooryavanshi found a place in the squad for the twin tour of Ireland and England.
India will travel to Ireland for two T20Is (June 26 and 28), followed by a five-match T20I series against England between July 1 and 11. Shreyas has returned to the national T20 side for the first time after competing against Australia in Bengaluru on December 3, 2023.
“With regards to Shreyas, we have seen what he has done over the last few years, leading different franchises,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar told media after announcing the squads for various tours. “(He) 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.
“He was quite close to getting into the (T20) World Cup squad as well. With Surya still there, there was no room for him, so he is in my opinion a stand-out candidate with enough experience now having led in the T20 format; this is obviously a different challenge,” Agarkar added. Shreyas’ impressive leadership credentials in the IPL — leading KKR to title in 2024 and PBKS to final in 2025 — along with two seasons of consistent outings with the bat prompted the selectors to zero in on him to replace T20 World Cup 2026 winning captain Suryakumar.
Suryakumar not just lost the captaincy but also his place in the squad. Agarkar said Suryakumar’s dipping form over the last two seasons in some way dictated their decision to remove the Mumbaikar from the T20 captaincy, but it was not the only reason.
“With regards to Surya, obviously it’s a tough one having just won the (T20) World Cup. But as it happens after most World Cups, we try and reassess what your best way forward is,” Agarkar said.
“(It was due to) partly his own form but also looking at the next two-year cycle, or a little bit more than two years now till the next World Cup, we thought this was the best way forward and like I said, Shreyas is a very deserving captain.”
“We deliberated on it a lot, especially when someone has led you to a World Cup win. It’s not the easiest sort of discussion to have, but I don’t necessarily think… at some stage, we were going to look at it. Now, whether IPL form dictated it; I’m not so sure that’s the case. There were always conversations around it,” he added.
