India’s soon-to-be-appointed T20I captain, Shreyas Iyer, has been asked by the senior selection committee to attend his first selection meeting as captain in person at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday. The meeting will be Iyer’s first as captain after taking over from Mumbai teammate Suryakumar Yadav.
The Indian Express understands that Iyer’s name has been cleared by the top official in the BCCI, and formally, he will be given the charge of India’s T20I team. “Iyer will be formally declared as captain on Saturday, and he will be leading the Indian T20I team in Ireland and England. The selection committee had sent their new captain’s name to the decision makers in the Indian board, and they have approved Iyer as the new skipper,” a source in the Indian board stated.
It was only a few days ago that the BCCI had decided to remove Surya as the T20I captain, with the selection committee also making it clear he won’t be picked in the shortest format again. The message was communicated to Surya a few days ago.
The selection committee was pleased with the way Iyer led the Punjab Kings in two seasons of IPL. It is understood that a long thought was given as to whether to bring back Shubman Gill as a leader. Gill’s recall to the Indian team would have meant the team would have had to compromise one of their top order batsmen, in Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma. Iyer brings that stability in the middle-order, and his form was also one of the reasons to try him as a new skipper.
31-year-old Iyer’s last appearance in T20I came in December 2023, and with a packed Indian batting line-up, he couldn’t find a spot in the middle-order. He was picked for the home series against New Zealand before the T20 World Cup but didn’t get a chance to play.
