Shreyas Iyer’s astonishing run as captain in the Indian Premier League (IPL) of different franchises has led to an increasing chorus of voices questioning why he has never been considered as a skipper for the Indian team itself. Shubman Gill is India’s new Test captain after Rohit Sharma retired from the format in May but in the days since, Iyer has led the Punjab Kings to their first final in 11 years, leading to questions over how he was never considered. Former captain and batting great Sunil Gavaskar has however stated that any talks of Iyer as captain should be only after Gill has been given a fair run.
“Regardless of whether is worthy of being the captain or not, we first need to look at Shubman Gill, who is the Test captain. We need to give him opportunities. If we talk about such things, then we are creating undue pressure on Shubman Gill,” Gavaskar said on Sports Tak.
“There is no need to create pressure on Shubman Gill before the England tour. You first need to realise that Shreyas Iyer is not even in the Indian team. There should be no talk about him being made the next Indian captain,” he added.
Iyer was a notable absentee in the Indian squad for the five-Test tour of England later this month. The last of his 14 Test appearances came in February 2024. He was dropped from BCCI’s list of centrally contracted players that month but after that, Iyer led the Kolkata Knight Riders to their first IPL title since 2014. He then played a crucial role in India’s run to the 2025 Champions Trophy title and before that, Iyer led Mumbai to victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
KKR incredibly chose to not retain Iyer and he ended up being signed by PBKS for INR 26.75 crore, momentarily becoming the most expensive in the history of the IPL auction before LSG broke the record just minutes later to acquire Rishabh Pant. Unlike Pant, though, Iyer has arguably had his best IPL season ever with the bat while leading PBKS to the final, scoring 603 runs and maintaining a strike rate of 175.80 in 16 matches going into the final.
Gavaskar said that while Iyer’s candidacy for India captaincy can be considered if and when he makes a comeback into the Indian Test team, Gill needs to be shown “tremendous confidence”. Gill starts his tenure with the rather unenviable task of leading India in five Test matches in England. “When he makes a return to the side then you can have a look at whether he can be made the captain or not. We need to show tremendous confidence in Shubman Gill, who has just been made the Test captain. He is our India captain,” said Gavaskar. You shouldn’t create doubts in his mind, there should be no pressure on him. You shouldn’t create pressure, saying, ‘Oh look, there is Shreyas Iyer’,” said Gavaskar.