Shreyas Iyer To Replace Suryakumar Yadav As T20I Captain? India Cricketer Blasts 'Senseless Debate'

Last Updated: September 04, 2025, 13:04 IST

India fast bowler Sandeep Sharma has rejected the suggestion that Shreyas Iyer could replace Suryakumar Yadav as India T20I captain on the basis of how he’s led IPL franchises in recent seasons. Iyer, in back-to-back IPL seasons, has led two different teams, including Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings, into finals, winning the title with KKR last year.

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Prior to that, he was also the captain of Delhi Capitals when they made it to their maiden IPL final in 2020, finishing as the runners-up. Iyer also had a stellar season with the bat in IPL 2025, scoring over 600 runs at a stunning strike-rate of 175.07.

Despite that, Iyer didn’t even make the cut in India’s squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025, which will be played in T20I format this time around in the UAE.

“See, this debate that he (Iyer) as a captain took his team to the finals is senseless," Sandeep was quoted as saying by 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."

Sandeep, who played two T20Is for India in July 2015, lays the emphasis on treating IPL as just a domestic tournament and not drawing parallels between leading a franchise and an international cricket 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," Sandeep, who has represented three different IPL teams during his career so far, said.

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“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.

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