New Delhi. Whenever there is talk of ‘captaincy’ and ‘leadership’ in Indian cricket, usually experience, age and long records in domestic cricket are cited. But in this modern era of T20 cricket, there is a player who has left behind the traditional equations of age in the captaincy race and has made a very unique and interesting record in his name. Stylish middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer achieved this feat in the first T20 match of the 2-match series against Ireland.
Shreyas Iyer achieved a unique achievement as soon as he made his debut as T20 International captain for India, which puts him at a different and special place in the line of stalwarts like Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Shikhar Dhawan. When we look at the debut age of Indian T20 captains, Shikhar Dhawan is the oldest debutant captain of India at the age of 35 years 232 days. After him comes Suryakumar Yadav, who took command of the T20I team for the first time at the age of 33 years and 70 days. Whereas Rohit Sharma wore this thorny crown of captaincy after crossing the age of 30 years 234 days and KL Rahul after crossing the age of 30 years 143 days.
In this entire list, Shreyas Iyer made his debut as the T20 International captain of Team India at the age of 31 years and 202 days. Even though he is younger than Shikhar or Surya in terms of age, the real twist is that when Shreyas took over the captaincy of India, he emerged as the most experienced debutant captain in the history of Team India in terms of ‘leadership experience’.
Rohit, Virat and Pant all behind
The bitter truth of T20 cricket is that to bear the pressure of captaincy on the international stage, you must have a vision of running the match beforehand. Shreyas Iyer appears to be miles ahead of India’s all-time great captains on this front. When he came on the field for the first time as the captain of the Indian T20 team, he had a lot of experience of captaining in 114 T20 matches. How huge this number is, you can imagine from the fact that when ‘Hitman’ Rohit Sharma made his T20I captaincy debut for India, he had the experience of only 80 T20 matches as a captain. Whereas ‘King’ Virat Kohli, one of the greatest captains of the modern era, became the captain of the Indian team after leading in just 72 T20 matches.
In this race, the figures of other captains do not even come close to Shreyas. At the time of his captaincy debut, KL Rahul had the experience of only 42 matches, whereas Rishabh Pant took command of Team India after captaining in 30 matches. If we talk about Shikhar Dhawan, he had taken this responsibility at the international level with the experience of captaining in only 21 T20 matches. These figures clearly testify that when Shreyas Iyer came to the field for the toss wearing a blue jersey, he was not a ‘novice’ but an experienced ‘professor’ of captaincy.
‘Captain Iyer’ blossomed in the furnace of IPL
Shreyas Iyer’s experience of 114 matches did not fall from the sky, rather he has achieved it by toiling himself in the furnace of Indian Premier League and domestic cricket. Taking over the captaincy of Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils) at the age of just 23-24 and steering the team to the finals for the first time, was the first example of Shreyas’s leadership abilities. After this, his captaincy journey further improved with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Shreyas is not only the captain who takes decisions on the field, but he is also considered an expert in changing the atmosphere of the dressing room and winning the trust of young players. This is the reason why when the T20 captaincy of India came to him, he was fully prepared to deal with every situation.
Why is this record of Shreyas special?
It is often seen that after getting captaincy on the international stage, players disintegrate under pressure or their personal performance gets affected. But in the case of Shreyas Iyer, the old experience of 114 T20 matches works as a protective shield for him. He knows very well how to rotate the bowlers in the powerplay, how to use spinners in the middle overs and how to stay cool when the match gets stuck. By debuting at the age of 31 years and 202 days, he proved that age is just a number, what really matters is the maturity of your captaincy. Starting international captaincy with more experience in leading matches than great strategists like Rohit and Virat is in itself a rare chapter of Indian cricket.
Strong pillar of future captaincy
This record of Shreyas Iyer also shows that the system of Indian cricket is now preparing players who are fully matured even before getting responsibility at the international level. With this ‘vast experience’ of captaincy, Shreyas Iyer has not only proved himself, but has also made his claim in the future leadership group of Team India very strong and unbreakable. This story of Iyer shows that captaincy is not just a matter of wearing an armband, it is the result of the silent penance of 114 matches that he had completed by sweating on the field before coming on the international stage.
