Finch-Chawla spoke on Shreyas Iyer’s excellent form and captaincy, discussion about Team India started again

Mumbai: Shreyas Iyer has scored 50, 69 not out and 66 in his last three innings in IPL 2026. This is one of the reasons why Punjab Kings are currently on top of the points table with four wins and one washout. Aaron Finch was at a loss for words to praise him after his recent brilliant innings. “It’s surprising to see him play how good he is. He hasn’t played any T20 matches between the last and the current IPL and yet he has been explosive right from the start. His captaincy is brilliant. It’s surprising to see why he doesn’t play more cricket for India,” Finch said on ESPN Cricinfo’s Timeout Show after Punjab’s win over Mumbai Indians.

“He is an excellent player and looks very good. He doesn’t try to hit the ball hard. He plays on both sides of the wicket, is excellent on both the front foot and the back foot. Now he has improved that part of his game a lot. Where earlier it seemed that he could be stopped or dismissed on the short ball, now he plays that too with control.”

Piyush Chawla, sitting with Finch, believes that Iyer should be in the team. Chawla said, “According to me, if I were a selector, he would have come straight into the team. He is one of the best middle-order players. He has a cricketing mind, he can also lead the team. Looking at the future, he will definitely make a place in the team.”

His strike rate is the third highest among the 22 batsmen who have scored more than 500 runs in the IPL since the beginning of 2025. Abhishek Sharma and his teammate Priyansh Arya are above him. His average during this period is also the third best. Virat Kohli and Jos Buttler are above him. So far in these two seasons, only four batsmen have scored more runs than him. Punjab spin bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule said after the match, “With time he has understood his game very well.

He works very hard on what is working for him and what is not. Which bowlers can he target? Everyone has a plan to bowl short balls against them. But he has become so intelligent that he knows when the bowler will do this and what is his plan. He is fully prepared for this. So along with his understanding, his execution has also become much better.”

Part of Punjab’s recent success has also been their ability to plan their chases properly. He holds the record for most successful chases of 200+ runs 10 times in all T20 and T20 league cricket. Australia is at second place, which has done this work seven times. Three of these chases for Punjab came when Iyer became the captain of the team from IPL 2025. This has happened twice this season. On Thursday, Punjab achieved the target of 196 runs with 21 balls left.

Bahutule said, “Iyer has a lot of clarity and understands the match situation very well. He tries to take the match till the end. Chasing the target of 200 runs is not easy, but we have done it 10-11 times in a row. He plays according to the situation, also plays aggressive shots and if the wicket falls, he takes the match forward by building partnerships.”

After all this, once again the discussion has started regarding his place in the national team. Finch said, “You see how strong India’s bench strength is. Maybe we won’t be able to beat their current team. Maybe not even their second team and maybe not even their third team. There is a lot of depth in Indian cricket, especially in batting.” But India has recently won the T20 World Cup for the second consecutive time. In such a situation, in whose place will Iyer come? “That’s the hardest thing. You have to respect the current players. They’ve won World Cups,” he said.

Finch said, “It is not so easy that if someone is in good form then bring him into the team immediately. It is an unfortunate time for the players who are out. But the next T20 World Cup is in Australia and there is still a lot of time for that. The conditions will be different there. So there will be a need for players who can play well around the world, especially on bouncy pitches. Shreyas definitely falls in that category.”