Shreyas Iyer Set to Take Over from Suryakumar Yadav as India’s T20I Captain

Indian team selectors are expected to hand the T20I captaincy to Shreyas Iyer, replacing Suryakumar Yadav. Young batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is also likely to earn his first call-up as the team begins planning for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the T20 World Cup, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand later that year.

The T20I squad for the Ireland and England tour is scheduled to be announced on Saturday. It will be India's first T20I series since Suryakumar guided the team to the T20 World Cup title in March.

As per the recent reports, there is a strong chance that Suryakumar Yadav will be left out of the upcoming squad. Questions over his place in the team grew after a disappointing 2026 T20 World Cup, where he managed 242 runs from nine innings at a strike rate of 136.72. His struggles continued in IPL 2026, scoring just 270 runs in 13 innings while averaging 20.76 with a strike rate of 147.54.

Shreyas, who is expected to take over the role, is 31 years old and has not featured in a T20I since December 2023. India struggled to fit him into the playing combination, with Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma holding the middle-order spots.

He was last included in the T20I squad earlier this year during the home series against New Zealand as an injury replacement. However, he did not get a chance to play, as the team management chose to back players who were part of India's plans for the T20 World Cup that followed.

Shreyas already has strong leadership experience. He guided Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to the IPL title in 2024, while also taking Delhi Capitals (DC) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) to the final in 2020 and 2025. In IPL 2025, he scored 604 runs with a strike rate of 175.07, and followed it up with 498 runs in IPL 2026 at a strike rate of 168.81.

This is the second year in a row that India’s selectors have gone for a big change. In 2025, Rohit Sharma led India to the Champions Trophy win in March, but was later replaced as ODI captain ahead of the Australia series in October.