Shreyas replaces Suryakumar as India T20 captain

Sooryavanshi in for England, Ireland series; youngest-ever to make it to India team

Winds of change swept across India’s T20I set-up as Shreyas Iyer on Saturday took over the captaincy from Suryakumar Yadav, and wonder kid Vaibhav Sooryavanshi found a place in the squad for the twin tour of Ireland and England.

At 15 years and 71 days old, Sooryavanshi becomes the youngest ever player to feature in an Indian cricket team, surpassing the long-standing record held by the great Sachin Tendulkar.

Tendulkar was 16 years and 205 days when he made his Test debut against Pakistan at Karachi on November 15, 1989.

India will travel to Ireland for two T20Is (June 26 and 28), followed by a five-match T20I series against England between July 1 and 11. Shreyas has returned to the national T20 side for the first time after competing against Australia in Bengaluru on December 3, 2023.

“With regards to Shreyas, we have seen what he has done over the last few years, leading different franchises,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar told media after announcing the squads for various tours.

“(He) won the final once, and from there a tougher season this year after a great start. We have seen everything that a captain possibly can (handle). His own performances have been really good.

“He was quite close to getting into the (T20) World Cup squad as well. With Surya still there, there was no room for him, so he is in my opinion a stand-out candidate with enough experience now having led in the T20 format; this is obviously a different challenge,” Agarkar added.

Shreyas’ impressive leadership credentials in the IPL — leading KKR to title in 2024 and PBKS to final in 2025 — along with two seasons of consistent outings with the bat prompted the selectors to zero in on him to replace T20 World Cup 2026 winning captain Suryakumar.

Suryakumar not just lost the captaincy but also his place in the squad. Agarkar said Suryakumar’s dipping form over the last two seasons in some way dictated their decision to remove the Mumbaikar from the T20 captaincy, but it was not the only reason.   “With regards to Surya, obviously it’s a tough one having just won the (T20) World Cup.

But as it happens after most World Cups, we try and reassess what your best way forward is,” Agarkar said.   “(It was due to) partly his own form but also looking at the next two-year cycle, or a little bit more than two years now till the next World Cup, we thought this was the best way forward and like I said, Shreyas is a very deserving captain.”    “We deliberated on it a lot, especially when someone has led you to a World Cup win. It’s not the easiest sort of discussion to have, but I don’t necessarily think... at some stage, we were going to look at it. Now, whether IPL form dictated it; I’m not so sure that’s the case. There were always conversations around it,” he added.

Tilak is new vice-captain:  Middle-order batter Tilak Varma will be Shreyas’ deputy, while pacer Prince Yadav, who had an impressive season for Lucknow Super Giants, was drafted for the series against England and Ireland.

 Agarkar said Tilak can learn more about the job of leading a side while being the deputy to Shreyas, a clear indication of his growth in the white ball format as a key member.

Bumrah to miss England, Ireland tour:  Lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah will miss the T20I series against England and Ireland, but he will come back for the Asian Games, to be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4.

“We know how important he is. Plus, (given) the WTC cycle, we’ve still got a chance to (qualify for the final) if we play well enough over these next nine Tests,” Agarkar said.   “If we can have Jasprit play majority of those games and still keep him fit and healthy, it’s always a thing. There’s a lot of T20 cricket, you can always bring him back. (In the) Asian games, he will be there. The main aim is to try and keep him fit for the Test and the one-dayers,” he added. 

All-rounder Hardik Pandya, who is in India’s ODI squad for the series against Afghanistan later this month, could not find place in any of the teams.

“Like Bumrah, if we can get him playing well and keep him fit for one-day cricket — I do not think he has played one-day cricket for a while — and at this point that is the main objective,” said Agarkar.

All-rounder Harshit Rana too has returned to the India set-up after missing the whole of the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders owing to an injury.

Squads:

For Ireland and England T20 tours: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

For Asian Games: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

For multi-day matches in Sri Lanka: Dhruv Jurel (c&wk), Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal (vc), Ayush Pandey, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harsh Dube, Saransh Jain, Gurnoor Brar, Auqib Nabi, Yash Thakur, N Jagadeesan (wk), Aman Mokhade, Shaik Rashid, Zeeshan Ansari.