Amidst the talks about the split captaincy, former Indian cricketer Maninder Singh surprised many by labelling Shreyas Iyer as Rohit Sharma’s successor in limited-overs cricket.
The former Indians spinner said that Iyer is his favourite cricketer and that he has a great cricketing brain and is a good thinker about the game, which makes him one of the contenders for India’s captaincy in white-ball cricket. He also backed Iyer to get regular opportunities with the Indian cricket team.
Maninder Singh said during a media interaction organised by the Sony Sports Network: “I’ve been saying this for the past 3-4 years, you know Shreyas Iyer is my favourite, whenever I have seen him lead any side, when he led the IPL side or anywhere, he looks like a good thinker of the game. He’s got a good head on his shoulders, and he is somebody who is very positive.”
He continued, “You can see his approach when he bats, whenever he comes to bat, he is looking for runs. He is not somebody who thinks that – ‘I’m gonna stay at the wicket for sometime, and then I start scoring runs’. If he doesn’t get boundaries from the word go, you can see him rotating his strike, he is looking for singles, trying to find the gaps and that’s his quality.”
The former spinner signed off by saying, “For me, I still feel, I’ve said it earlier Hardik Pandya at the moment – you can make him the captain in white-ball cricket. But in my mind, its Shreyas Iyer, actually (a candidate) for the past 3-4 years. I really hope that we give him opportunities to play for India regularly in all the formats because he has a good brain.”
