Not Hardik Pandya or Shubman Gill: The overlooked India batsman was being groomed as the next captain for the T20 World Cup. cricket news

Former BCCI chief selector MSK Prasad revealed that Shreyas Iyer is being groomed to become the captain of the Indian cricket team in the future. The batsman, who was considered a major talent for the national team, missed out on a BCCI central contract due to not playing domestic cricket despite not being on national duty. He played a few matches for Mumbai and also played some good innings for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2024, but when the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 was announced, the batsman was once again ignored. However, Prasad revealed that the selectors were initially impressed by his leadership skills and considered him a top contender to captain India.

“Unlike Hardik Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer 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 his attention while captaining the India A team.

“If you go back to the statistics, in the last two years, when we were on top, Shreyas Iyer led the team (India A). I think out of the 10 series that India A played, we won 8. Shreyas led the team in most of those series. He has been in and around as captain. They are tailored for that particular location,” Prasad said.

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

Prasad also spoke about Shreyas’ tenure as KKR captain.

“He is gradually maturing into a very good leader. It is very important to have good team management at the beginning of your captaincy career. This is what they are getting from KKR. He’s young and they’re going to invest in him. Over the next two or three years we will see Shreyas develop into an amazing captain.”