(Image source from: Newsarenaindia.com)
Shreyas Iyer is about to take over as India's T20I captain, replacing Suryakumar Yadav, while Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is getting his first chance to play for the national team. The selectors are preparing for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the next T20 World Cup that will be held in Australia and New Zealand in the same year. The team for the T20I matches will be revealed on Saturday for the tour to Ireland and England, which is India's first T20I challenge since Suryakumar led them to win the T20 World Cup in March. It seems that Suryakumar, who is 35 years old, will not be included in the team anymore. Questions about his role started after a modest performance in the 2026 T20 World Cup, where he scored 242 runs over nine innings with a strike rate of 136.72. He also had a disappointing IPL 2026, gathering just 270 runs in 13 innings at an average of 20.76 with a strike rate of 147.54. Shreyas, who is 31 years old, hasn’t played a T20I since December 2023 because there has been no spot for him with Suryakumar and Tilak Varma filling the middle-order spots. He was last called to the T20I team as a substitute for an injured player during the home series against New Zealand in January this year, but he did not get a chance to play as India chose to use players who were set for the following T20 World Cup.
However, Shreyas has demonstrated his ability as a captain by leading Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to victory in the IPL 2024 and guiding Delhi Capitals (DC) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) to the finals in 2020 and 2025, respectively. During IPL 2025, he scored 604 runs with a strike rate of 175.07 and in IPL 2026, he had 498 runs at a strike rate of 168.81. This is the second time in a row that India’s selectors are making such a change. In 2025, Rohit Sharma led India to win the Champions Trophy in March, but the selectors changed him as ODI captain before the team’s next series in Australia in October. Nevertheless, Rohit remained part of the ODI team. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Sooryavanshi is set to be the youngest player selected for an India men's squad since Sachin Tendulkar in the late 1980s after an impressive IPL season where he scored 776 runs with a strike rate of 237.30. Before the T20I matches in Ireland and England, Sooryavanshi will play for India A in a tri-series in Sri Lanka that will also include Afghanistan from June 9 to 21. India will face Ireland in two T20Is in Belfast on June 26 and 28, and then play five T20Is in England from July 1 to 11.
