Shreyas Iyer’s last three knocks read 50, 69* and 66; Punjab Kings sit neatly on top of the table with four wins and a wash-out; and yet the 31-year-old still cannot find a place in India’s current T20I squad. The numbers are tidy, the conundrum less so.
First, the basics. Since the beginning of 2025 only four batters have scored more IPL runs, and among players with 500-plus runs in that period Iyer’s strike-rate is third—trailing only Abhishek Sharma and his own team-mate Priyansh Arya. Punjab have successfully chased 200 or more ten times in all short-form cricket, three of those victories coming under Iyer’s captaincy, two of them this season alone. On Thursday night they reeled in 196 against Mumbai Indians with 21 balls unused.
Aaron Finch, speaking on the TimeOut show, could barely hide his admiration. “He hadn’t played any T20 in between IPLs, and he’s just started off like a house on fire,” the former Australia captain said, before repeating the line that has become his theme this fortnight: “it staggers me when you watch how good he is”.
Finch ran through the qualities. “His leadership is unbelievable. It staggers me when you watch how good he is that he does not play more cricket for India.
“Wonderful player. Just beautiful to watch as well. Like, he doesn’t seem to overhit the ball. He plays both sides of the wicket, front foot, back foot. Now he’s really tightened up that part of his game, where you always felt as though you could bowl short and either get him out, or really control his scoring. And now he just takes it on, but he takes it on with control.”
Control is a word that crops up repeatedly around the Punjab camp. Spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule, who knows Iyer from their Mumbai domestic days, believes the batter’s method is a product of honest reflection. “Over a period of time, he’s really understood his game,” Bahutule said after the win over Mumbai. “He really works hard in knowing what is working for him, what is not working for him, which are the bowlers he can target.”
Bowling short is a ploy opponents still employ, though usually more in hope than conviction. “And everybody, you know, sort of has their understanding of bowling that short ball to him,” Bahutule continued. “But he’s become so smart at it that he understands when he [the bowler] is going to bowl that, the plan the bowler has. And he’s very much ready for it. So, I think, not only his smartness, but his execution also has become very optimal.”
Iyer’s pragmatism extends to Punjab’s chase maps. Each innings is treated less as a sprint, more as a sequence of achievable sections. “[Iyer has] a lot of clarity and understanding the situation of the game, he tries to take the game deeper,” Bahutule explained. “Make sure that the chase has never been… It’s not the easiest of things, you know, when you’re chasing about 200 runs. And we’ve actually consistently done it for about 10-11 times now.
“He’s somebody who’s aware of the situation, takes it deep, mixes it with his attacking shots,” the coach added, the point needing little elaboration after Thursday’s canter.
For national selectors, the debate is no longer whether Iyer can keep pace with modern T20 demands—he plainly does—but whether his skill-set slots into a line-up already heavy on top-order anchors. Finch, for one, does not understand the hesitation. “His leadership is unbelievable,” he repeated, another broad hint should India wish to spread captaincy duties.
The IPL, though, is more immediate, and Punjab owe their early cushion in no small part to a captain who neither overhits nor overthinks. Whether that steady hand will be offered a return to the international circuit remains to be seen. What is clear, even to those paid to oppose him, is that Shreyas Iyer’s T20 game now runs on “clarity, smartness, execution”—and a fair chunk of runs to go with it.
