‘Absolutely deserves it’ – India’s chairman of selectors on Shreyas Iyer’s appointment as T20I captain

Indian selectors announced the team for the tours of Ireland and England, as well as the Asian Games 2026, on Saturday. Shreyas Iyer was formally announced as the new captain of the T20I team, replacing his former teammate Suryakumar Yadavwho had led the side for close to two years.

Iyer will begin his reign with the two-game T20I series in Ireland starting in late June. The biggest Test will come during the five-match T20I series against England in July as well as the massive Asian Games tournament in September. Iyer, who began his captaincy with Delhi Capitals, also led Kolkata Knight Riders to a title win in 2024. This was followed up with him being named the captain of the Punjab Kings team in 2025.

Addressing the media, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar was asked about Shreyas’ elevation to captaincy. The 48-year-old said, “This is almost a clean break after the World Cup, with the next event being some time away. Shreyas absolutely deserves it (captaincy). Firstly, you need to be a good player to make it to the side, andthen we also took into account his performance as a captain.”

The former Indian pacer also added, “Shreyas has already won the IPL title with KKR when Gautam Gambhir was there, and also done well with Punjab in the last few seasons. It looked unusual that he (Iyer) wasn’t part of the team in the last few years, but was always close to selection. Suryakumar and Tilak Varma were batting in his position, which made it difficult to select him, but now he’s earned that spot.”

Tilak Varma named as new vice-captain

Young batter Tilak Varma will be the new vice-captain of the Indian T20I side. The 23-year-old is set to lead the India A side during the upcoming Tri-Series against Sri Lanka and Afghanistan starting next week. Sri Lanka will host the series, which will also feature Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

When asked about Tilak’s elevation to the deputy role, Ajit said, “There were no doubts about Varma’s place in the side since he batted at number five. Ishan batting at 3 and us playing two wicketkeepers meant that everyone else had to drop down the batting order. Now that he is the vice-captain, he will get to learn, and we didn’t have any doubts about his abilities as a batter either.”