On Saturday’s BCCI selection meeting, the selectors made an unprecendented move in Indian criciket: dropping an ICC trophy winning captain from the team right after he’d led the nation to glory.
In March, Suryakumar Yadav joined Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni, and Rohit Sharma on the list of India’s World Cup-winning captains. However, in India’s upcoming T20I trips to Ireland and England, Suryakumar didn’t find a place in the squad.
Suryakumar’s captaincy was not a concern – India didn’t lose a single series/tournament between the 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups – but his form was. His runs had dried up in T20Is in the last year or so; he had a largely underwhelming T20 World Cup with the bat and had a poor IPL 2026 as well.
Shreyas Iyer has replaced Suryakumar in the side and as a captain. Iyer has been in peak batting form in recent years, and his captaincy credentials – IPL title with KKR and runners-up finishes with Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings – made him the ideal candidate to take over the reins from SKY, even though Iyer wasn’t even in the squad for the T20 World Cup.
After the seven T20Is on the UK tour (2 vs Ireland and 5 vs England), Iyer will lead India to the Asian Games 2026 in September-October in Japan.
15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, on the back of a blistering IPL 2026 season, has been called up for the first time to the senior men’s Indian team, although how he will fit in the side is uncertain as the top three of Samson, Abhishek, and Kishan seem set in stone.
If he makes his T20I debut on the tour of the UK, Sooryavanshi will become the youngest Indian to play international cricket; Sachin Tendulkar currently holds this record for making his India debut at 16 years and 205 days old.
Further, Tilak Varma has replaced Axar Patel as the vice-captain.
Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested from the T20Is against Ireland and the UK. Hardik will also miss the Asian Games, but Bumrah will fly to Japan as India eye a gold medal.
Harshit Rana is on the road to recover from a knee injury that kept him out of the T20 World Cup and the IPL and has been named in the squad.
Ravi Bishnoi makes a comeback to the T20I setup, while Kuldeep Yadav has been excluded, and so has Rinku Singh. Nitish Kumar Reddy replaces Hardik in the squad. Fast bowler Prince Yadav is the additional member in the T20I squad.
Ireland will host India for a two-T20I series on June 26 and 28. Then India will take on England in a five-T20I series from July 1.
India squads for Ireland and England T20I series:
Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma (vc), Prince Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Axar Patel, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
India squad for Asian Games:
Shreyas Iyer (C), Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma (vc), Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shivam Dube, Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan (wk), Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.
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