Not Hardik Pandya Or Shubman Gill: India Batter, Ignored For T20 World Cup, Was Being Groomed As Next Captain

Indian cricket team in action© AFP

Former BCCI chief selector MSK Prasad revealed that Shreyas Iyer was being groomed to become a future Indian cricket team skipper. The batter, who was considered to be a big talent for the national side, missed out on a BCCI central contract after not playing domestic cricket despite not being on national duty. He did play some matches for Mumbai and also produced a couple of good knocks for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2024 but the batter was once again ignored when the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 was announced. However, Prasad revealed that selectors were earlier impressed with his leadership skills and considered him to be a top contender for India captaincy.

“Shreyas Iyer, unlike Hardik Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja has been groomed (as a captain). He has come through a system,” Prasad said on RevSportz.

Prasad, who served as the BCCI chief selector between 2016 and 2020, revealed that Shreyas caught their eye while captaining the India A side.

“If you go back to the stats, in the last two years, when we were at the helm, Shreyas Iyer led the side (India A). I think out of the 10 series that India A played, we won 8. In the majority of those series, Shreyas led the side. He has been in and around as captain. He has been groomed for that particular slot,” Prasad said.

“We felt that post Virat, post Rohit Sharma, you needed someone to lead the side that’s when we started thinking about Shreyas Iyer or Rishabh Pant. But even ahead of Pant, was Iyer as a captain,” he added.

Prasad also had his say about Shreyas’ stint as the KKR captain.

“He is slowly maturing into a very good leader. It’s very important at the start of your captaincy career to have good team management. That’s what he’s getting from KKR. He is young, and they are going to invest in him. In the next two or three years, we will see Shreyas evolve into a wonderful captain.”