Shreyas Iyer challenges Shubman Gill in white-ball captaincy race after IPL 2025 success - Reports

Shreyas Iyer led Punjab Kings to the final of IPL 2025.

Indian Cricket Team player Shreyas Iyer was one of the performers who grabbed a lot of limelight in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The right-handed batsman led Punjab Kings (PBKS) to the final, where they eventually lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to end as runners-up.

However, it was still a big achievement for the franchise as they failed to reach the playoffs for the last ten seasons, having made it last in the 2014 edition. Notably, Shreyas Iyer became the first captain in IPL history to take three teams to the finals of the tournament. Under his captaincy, Delhi Capitals (DC) finished as runners-up in the 2020 season, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the title in the 2024 edition, and PBKS played the final in the most recent edition.

He also played a crucial role in Qualifier 2 of the IPL 2025 against the Mumbai Indians (MI). The PBKS captain slammed an unbeaten knock of 87 runs to almost single-handedly power his team to victory during a mammoth 204-run chase. His fabulous innings also attracted a lot of appreciation from the cricket fraternity.

Shreyas Iyer joins captaincy race in white-ball formats – Reports

According to reports by the Indian Express, one of the influential decision-makers in Indian cricket has reckoned that Shreyas Iyer has joined the captaincy race in the ODIs and T20Is after his success with PBKS in IPL 2025. Currently, Rohit Sharma is the captain in ODIs, while Suryakumar Yadav is the skipper in the T20Is. Shubman Gill was recently named as test captain.

“Right now he just plays ODIs, but after this IPL we can’t keep him out of T20 internationals and even tests. Plus, he has also now officially joined the white-ball captaincy race,” the official said.

There were a few reports that claimed Shubman Gill will soon take over the ODI captaincy as well as the BCCI wants him to build the team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2027. But now, with reports of Shreyas Iyer coming into the scheme of captaincy things, it remains to be seen who will take over the charge.

Notably, Shreyas Iyer is a regular member of the Indian team in the ODIs as of now. He was not picked for the test team for the England series despite his impressive show in the domestic circuit over the last year. His omission from the tests became a talking point among the cricket fraternity.

With 604 runs in 17 games, Iyer finished as the sixth-highest run-scorer in IPL 2025 and the top run-scorer for his team. At a brilliant average of 50.33 and a stunning strike rate of 175.07, he hammered six half-centuries in the tournament, including a top knock of an unbeaten 97 against the Gujarat Titans (GT)

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