Shreyas Iyer replaced Suryakumar Yadav as India's T20I captain.
Shreyas Iyer, who last played a T20I for India in 2023 against Australia, has replaced Suryakumar Yadav, the two-time T20 World Cup-winning player, and who recently won the T20 World Cup 2026 as India captain. Suryakumar Yadav boasted of an astonishing record of having never lost a T20I series as India captain.
However, with poor form with the bat and BCCI looking at the next two-year cycle before the T20 World Cup 2028, they decided to give the reins to Shreyas Iyer and dropped Suryakumar Yadav from the India squad as well.
Ashwin, on the other hand, questioned how someone who wasn't even on the squad during the previous mission could be appointed captain. He further emphasized the instability, stating that it was a "wrong move" to bring Shreyas in and give him the keys right away.
“Someone who wasn't even on the team, how can he do the captaincy? I read somewhere that Shreyas Iyer will be the team's captain. I just want to ask how someone who wasn't even there in the T20 World Cup squad can be made the captain now.
I have a lot of time for Shreyas. When he wasn't picked, we talked about it for a long time. But this is also wrong. He cannot be made the captain straightaway. But anyway, the bigger point is that there should be stability,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Shreyas Iyer has been an amazing captain in the IPL, leading three different teams-Delhi Capitals in 2020, Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024, and Punjab Kings in 2025- to the IPL finals. He won the IPL in 2024 with KKR as captain. The IPL 2025 saw Shreyas hammering 604 runs, and the 19th edition of the T20 tournament this year saw him smashing 498 runs.
Iyer made his India T20I comeback against New Zealand earlier this year, but didn’t get a game.