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After T20 World Cup 2026, Shreyas Iyer became Suryakumar Yadav's successor as captain. Suryakumar's inconsistent run with the bat cost him a place in the side leading to Iyer's gain. While Iyer's tenure got off to a rocky start with a historic T20I series defeat to Ireland, he is hopeful. Ahead of the five-T20I series against England, Iyer revealed that he had interactions with former T20 World Cup-winning captains Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar before he boarded the flight to United Kingdom. He described speaking to Rohit as if he is talking to a sibling. He also revealed that Suryakumar gave him inputs about the management and players as his Mumbai teammate takes over the leadership role.
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"Interacting with Rohit Sharma, it's like you're just having a chat with your brother. He's that sort of a figure who has also helped me in my domestic career. So it's always been easy to interact with him," Iyer said on BCCI.tv.
"And Surya (Suryakumar Yadav), again, similar character. I've played with him a lot of domestic cricket and just before coming here he gave me inputs about how the management is going to be, how the players are going to be in this certain situation. So yes, definitely decent interaction and a lot to learn at the same time," he added.
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During the same interaction, Iyer revealed that his appointment as T20I captain after not being part of the team for a long while wasn’t ‘outlandish’. After a ‘brilliant’ run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Punjab Kings (PBKS), he was expecting it to come his way.
Defeat to Ireland a learning curve
Iyer also admits that he hasn’t had an ideal start to his T20I captaincy career. With the bat, he managed to score just 13 runs, contributing to the collapse in the T20I series against Ireland in Belfast.
But, he treats it as a learning curve. He wants the players to support and trust each other as they move ahead in the new cycle under his leadership. He wants the team to go ahead with an aggressive and fearless approach. He wants his team to intimidate the opposition on the field and aims to win every match going forward.
Iyer resonates with head coach Gautam Gambhir’s statement in one of the press conference that this is going to be a new paragraph in India’s T20I cricket history who have won the T20 World Cup thrice.
Wounded teams face each other
As the T20I series commences in Durham, it will be Iyer’s second T20I appearance in England. He has played a few T20Is against England as well. While India have lost to Ireland, England are not high on confidence either with a Test series defeat against New Zealand at home and off-the-field controversies leading to Ben Stokes’ Test retirement.
The England side hasn’t played a T20I since the T20 World Cup 2026 semifinal loss to India in a high-scoring affair where Jacob Bethell scored his maiden T02 century in an unsuccessful run chase in Mumbai.
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