Shreyas Iyer had a disastrous start to his T20I captaincy, losing six matches on the trot. Three matches in Zimbabwe finally helped him taste success.
The 31-year-old will lead India in the three T20Is against Afghanistan, starting later this week, before participating in the Asian Games in Nisshin, Japan.
Shreyas is sure to feel the pressure since India are the defending champions at the Asian Games. Sunil Gavaskar, however, thinks he is well equipped to handle it all.
“I think Shreyas is very experienced as a captain, we’ve seen him when he was captain of KKR and Delhi (Capitals) and then Punjab (Kings), he’s got the experience and so I don’t think it’s going to be any further pressure… That said, I think every time you captain India, the expectations are very high, I think everybody who gets the honour and privilege of captaining the country, they know the pressure of expectations will be there.
“But he’s very experienced, so I don’t really think he’s going to have any pressure going into the Asian Games… It’s going to be tough because you know it’s a T20 tournament… Bangladesh are in form, Pakistan are always dangerous and Sri Lanka
also as a T20 team are terrific, not to forget Afghanistan, so it’s not going to be easy at all,” Gavaskar said during an interaction.
The team will begin their Asiad campaign on September 28.
Jasprit Bumrah, who hasn’t yet passed the fitness test, is also in the 15-member squad. With seven important Test matches lined up, Gavaskar doesn’t think it will lead to workload issues for the fast bowler.
“There’s a big gap after the Asian Games on to the Test matches in New Zealand (mid-November), there’s a fair gap… So playing Bumrah I think is actually a good idea because he has to get some bowling under his belt before he plays in the series against New Zealand… Mohammed Siraj was not quite in rhythm since he hadn’t played enough cricket (in Sri Lanka), he wasn’t probably… it was thought that he didn’t bowl at his best, so it’s also important for the bowlers to get some overs under their belt and Bumrah getting these overs is very essential,” Gavaskar said.
The focus will also be on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. A low-key start to his international career in England was followed by two half-centuries in Zimbabwe. Gavaskar though wants to persist with the wonder kid because of his ability to turn a match on its head.
“Look, in T20 cricket, you can’t expect any batter to be consistent. That is pretty difficult for anybody. But again, he’s the kind of batter who will probably in 10 innings, win you three to four matches with his blazing innings. And in the other matches as well, out of the 10, he will still maybe not score a 50-plus, but he’ll get you off to a good start.
“He might score 25 in an over and a half and get the team to a 45-run start in the first four/five overs. So, he’s somebody with whom we need to have patience. He’s only 15 years old. He will, as he plays a lot more, gain a lot more experience. I think he will use that experience because from whatever little interaction one has had with him, he looks like a very smart cricketer, somebody who learns fast.
“And we saw that from the 2025 to 2026. If in 2025, he was predominantly a straight and an on-side hitter, in IPL 2026, he was hitting over long off, he was hitting over extra cover, he was cutting the ball over deep cover, deep point for sixes. So he had gone that one step higher. We need to be a little more patient.”
The former captain also doesn’t want to tinker much with the Indian top-order’s aggressive approach in the Powerplay overs.
“I think it depends on the situation and the opposition as well. But I believe that the Indian batting is absolutely fantastic… We’ve got players at number six and seven
who can score at a strike rate of 140/150. So I think that will be something to really look forward to.”