On Shreyas Iyer' ODI Captaincy Debate, Ignored India Star Says, "Baseless..."
Recent reports claimed that the BCCI is keen on rewarding Shreyas Iyer for his leadership exploits in the IPL by naming him captain of India's ODI team.
- Recent reports claim that the BCCI may consider Shreyas Iyer as ODI captain after the Asia Cup
- Sandeep Sharma stated IPL captaincy should not determine India’s national team leadership
- "So I feel this debate is senseless, what he is doing in the IPL," the 32-year-old said
Shreyas Iyer's omission from India's Asia Cup 2025 squad sparked a huge debate, with fans and several experts voicing their displeasure over the call made by the Ajit Agarkar-led men's selection committee. Just a season after guiding Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their third Indian Premier League (IPL) title, Shreyas led Punjab Kings (PBKS) to their first final in 11 years, where they eventually lost to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The 30-year-old also had a stellar season with the bat, amassing 604 runs in 17 innings at an average of 50.33 and a strike rate of 175.07.
Days after India's squad for the continental event came out, some reports came out, claiming that the BCCI is keen on rewarding Shreyas for his leadership exploits in the IPL by naming him captain of the ODI team, and that a decision on the same could be taken after the Asia Cup.
However, veteran pacer Sandeep Sharma feels IPL captaincy should not be the parameter for selecting a captain of the national team.
"See, this debate that he as a captain took his team to the finals is senseless. Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] is not the captain of any franchise. So that is not the criteria to be the captain of the Indian side. And for the last two years, Rohit was not the captain of any franchise. But still, he was the captain of the Indian T20 team and the one-day side is still the same captain. And he was the captain of all three formats. So that is not the criteria, what you do in the IPL. The IPL is totally different. It is a domestic league," Sharma told CricTracker.
Sharma, who has been absent from the Indian team for over a decade, further explained how captaining the Indian team is a different challenge from being the leader at the domestic level.
"The BCCI has its own domestic league, right? And when you are picking an international team, you are picking 15 people. So you pick a captain who will manage those 15 people better. Here in the IPL, you have a lot of domestic players, a lot of young players. Some of them come from overseas. But here you are picking someone who will manage 15 people better. So I feel this debate is senseless, what he is doing in the IPL. These two teams are totally different teams. The Indian team is a totally different team. An IPL team is a totally different team. So I feel people need to learn and people need to understand more about this before commenting," he added.
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