New Delhi, 4 June

He was a Knight in the shining armour for Kolkata in 2024 and in 2025, became the King who almost led Punjab to the crown. Shreyas Iyer's IPL season didn't end with the trophy but he well and truly established himself as the leader that India might need in the not-so-distant future.

Iyer became the third skipper after Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma to captain an IPL franchise to three finals and he did it with three different teams in the last five years. That's some range for a player, who astoundingly did not make the Indian Test team for the tour of England this month.

KKR let him go last year as they didn't consider his demand for a higher retention fee to be just. Their loss was, needless to say, a massive gain for Punjab Kings.

They got an astute captain and a passionate leader of the men in the 30-year-old, who knows a thing or two about handling the highs and lows of a career with grace.

The jury is still out on Shubman Gill, who will face a trial by fire as captain in England. But after June 3, 2025, Shreyas Santosh Iyer should be rated as one of the best captains in Indian cricket.

There is a Dhoni-like cool quotient, a Virat Kohli-like aggressive streak when the situation demands and also a ''Bindaas Mumbaikar in him just like his illustrious India teammate Rohit Sharma.

"Job is still half done, we have to win it next year," Iyer's confidence shone through the disappointment of missing it this time by a mere six runs in Ahmedabad on Tuesday night.

That he is not in the squad for England has surprised none more than his Punjab Kings coach Ricky Ponting.

"I actually was gutted...but he's accepted that really well and he's moved on," Ponting said on The ICC Review of Iyer, prior to the IPL Playoffs.

"He's just got that real hunger in his eyes to do well every time that he plays for us here and wants to win games of cricket and wants to evolve and develop into the best leader and captain that he can be."

Been through the grind

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A statement like that coming from a two-time World Cup winning captain carries weight and Ponting didn't say that just to back his franchise captain.

The two do go back a long way. In the 2017 season when the now India head coach Gautam Gambhir decided to quit captaincy mid-season, it was on Ponting's insistence that Iyer became the captain of the Delhi IPL franchise.

The only time Capitals played the finals, in 2020, was under Iyer. After an injury-forced break that Iyer endured, the Capitals decided that they could not hold on to him and risk losing Rishabh Pant, a rising star of that time with burning captaincy ambitions.

Iyer went to KKR as captain in 2024, but got very little credit for their trophy-winning run as he batted in the lower order to suit the needs of the team.

His then KKR coach Gambhir walked away with major credits for tactical nous, while the skipper's instinctive decisions and meticulous homework went relatively unnoticed.

However, if a player leads two different franchises, with different managements, philosophies and changed roster of players to the finals in back-to-back seasons, his strategic brilliance can't go unrecognised for too long.

And Iyer finally got his due this season. It became clear that his grasp on match situations and strategies was second to none.

He knew that on pitches where there is lack of bounce, Kyle Jamieson's back of the length deliveries will work and it turned out to be a masterstroke. Against Gujarat Titans, he asked Vijaykumar Vyshak to nail the wide yorkers repeatedly and it worked. Against Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2, he told him to take pace off his deliveries with knuckle balls and that worked too.

He has shown that possibly, after Rohit Sharma calls it quits in ODIs, he can be thought of as a candidate for leadership considering he is a phenomenal 50-over batter. And when it comes to T20s and Tests, it's a matter of time before he plays both formats again.

What drives Iyer the captain?

"First and foremost clarity of thought. He is a very process-driven man. He doesn't miss his routines and drills pertaining to physical fitness. There are no cheat days. But most importantly, he has limited his friend circle over the years.

"He does that to ensure no negativity creeps into his system," someone who has worked very closely with Iyer in the past couple of years told PTI.

For his batting, the mental aspect and visualisation has been handled by Abhishek Nayar while childhood coach Praveen Amre rebuilt his game when he was away from the Indian team.

"Constantly visualising with a bat in his hand. working on his head position, body stance and visualising every delivery," a close friend said.

He can be livid when a player isn't giving his 100 percent (the Shashank Singh run out in Qualifier 2) and at the same time, he can put an arm around Priyansh Arya's shoulder asking him to carry on with his natural strokeplay.

When Punjab Kings lost to RCB in the first qualifier, he had said, "We have lost a battle not the war".

From that moment one could see that Indian cricket has a leader in the making, someone who has the ability to sift through the run of the mill stuff and look at the bigger picture.

Shreyas Iyer has well and truly arrived.