Agarkar, BCCI told to reconsider Shreyas Iyer for India captaincy as unheard IPL tale emerges: 'He hasn't gotten credit'
Shreyas Iyer may not have led Punjab Kings to title glory in IPL 2025, with the franchise falling just six runs short against eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru, but the India star certainly profited on the personal front. Having led two different franchises to the IPL final in consecutive seasons, Kolkata Knight Riders being the other, who won in 2024, Iyer has reportedly found himself in the race to take over the India white-ball captaincy.
Although the BCCI has yet to officially address this development, with India slated to play their next white-ball game in the ODI tour of Bangladesh later this summer, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee keep getting reminded why Iyer could be the best solution for India after Rohit Sharma.
On Tuesday, PBKS assistant coach Brad Haddin, speaking on The Grade Cricketer podcast, revealed a fresh story of Iyer's captaincy heroics, admitting that his leadership hasn't got enough credit.
Haddin recalled the Qualifier 2 game against the Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad. He said that while the conditions at the venue and past recorded clearly hinted at batting first, which was eventually decided by the team management, Iyer walked in at the last minute to say that he would be opting to bowl first and was confident of leading the team to a victory. What followed was a stellar batting show from the captain himself, as PBKS reached their first IPL final since 2014.
'You do all you planning for the game and at the stadium in Ahmedabad, everything says bat first. The analytics and the match-ups, go through your team stuff, everything says bat first. And this is where our captain hasn't got enough credit and I hope, when they come down to pick an Indian captain, they really start to consider Iyer. He was outstanding throughout the whole tournament. We say to him, 'Yep we are batting first.' But he goes, 'No, we're bowling.' Punter goes, 'okay let the captain make the choice.' He then said, 'No, I'll win the game and I'm going to bat second. Everything leads to batting first, but we bowl. Then captain comes out in the second innings and plays one of the best knocks in IPL I have ever seen and got us into the final,' he said.
Batting first, Mumbai had set a target of 204. In reply, PBKS rode on an unbeaten 41-ball 87 from Iyer to wrap up the chase with an over to spare in the rain-hit game.
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