Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that it would be premature to judge Shreyas Iyer as India’s T20I captain in just five games. He added that the T20 World Cup 2028 was kept in mind while handing over the leadership role to Iyer as well. However, India have lost four of the five games under Shreyas’ captaincy, with one match ending as a no-result due to rain.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “It shouldn’t be judged so quickly because things have changed. Suryakumar Yadav was the captain earlier, and now you have made Shreyas Iyer the captain. There is no Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, or Nitish Kumar Reddy. Not that Reddy was playing the World Cup, but there have been changes. Even Varun Chakaravarthy wasn’t available in one series. So when you look at it from that perspective, you feel it’s too early to judge, and why should it be judged so early, as your path is very long. You are thinking about the World Cup. That’s in 2028.”
“So to make any change today in haste because we feel we need to change, it won’t be the right thing to do. If we start judging Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy based on the fact that the start hasn’t been good, then we will never build a team,” he added.
However, Aakash Chopra also stated that he wanted Suryakumar Yadav to continue as India’s T20I skipper for the series against Ireland and England as well.
“Personally, I felt Suryakumar Yadav should have been allowed to captain in one or two more series – that Ireland series and this England series. Then we could have said that we want to move away. It would have been right had that off-ramp been given. If you have not done that and given Shreyas Iyer a chance, stay with him for some time. It’s not a good thing if we start running here and there very early. I am not going to judge Shreyas’ captaincy based on the performance in one or two series,” Chopra concluded.
Get the latest cricket news here, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more such updates.
