Former India cricketer Ambati Rayudu feels that Shreyas Iyer should be the successor to Rohit Sharma as the Men in Blue's next captain in the one-day format. This comes after the 30-year-old captained the Punjab Kings in IPL 2025 and the team went on to make the final. Though they would eventually lose the final against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Shreyas' leadership was impressive throughout the tournament.
Iyer had led KKR to the IPL title in 2024
Iyer had proved his worth as a captain in IPL 2024 itself when he had captained the Kolkata Knight Riders to their third title. His performance with PBKS only helped in certifying his status as a top skipper. Rayudu highlighted how the 30-year-old took a young side to the IPL final and added that he should be made India's ODI captain soon.
"Iyer, he has got an extraordinary calmness. He first captained KKR as the champions and then Punjab. The way he led a young team to the final of the tournament. I mean, nobody had imagined that. Very soon he should be made the captain," Rayudu said on Shubhankar Mishra's podcast.
Earlier this year, Iyer played a key role in India's ICC Champions Trophy triumph, scoring 243 runs in five matches and innings at an average of 48.60, including two important half-centuries. He was the top run-getter for the Men in Blue and contributed well in the batting department in almost every match.
Meanwhile, Iyer failed to get a spot in India's Asia Cup 2025 squad that got announced on August 19, Tuesday. The batter wasn't only left out of the squad, but wasn't picked as a reserve either. This was quite a surprising deciusion on the selectors' part as Iyer had given stunning performances with the bat in his previous major T20 assignment which was the IPL. The 30-year-old, who last played in a T20I in 2023, is set to continue his wait of playing for India in the shortest format again.
India's squad for Asia Cup 2025: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.