Shreyas Iyer has been confirmed as India’s new T20I captain, replacing Suryakumar Yadav, who has been dropped from the squad for the series in Ireland and England in June and July. The squad includes 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who has received his maiden call-up to the national team as the selectors look to build towards the 2028 Summer Olympics and the 2028 T20 World Cup.
Tilak Varma has replaced Axar Patel as the vice-captain of the T20I squad.
Apart from the inclusions of Shreyas and Sooryavanshi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravi Bishnoi, and Prince Yadav were also brought into the squad, while Rinku Singh and Kuldeep Yadav were left out of the squad that won the T20 World Cup. Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah were rested.
The tour of Ireland and England is India’s first T20I series since Suryakumar, 35, led the team to a successful defence of the T20 World Cup trophy in March. However, he will be 38 before the next T20 World Cup in 2028. Debate surrounding his position intensified following a lukewarm 2026 T20 World Cup campaign, during which he scored 242 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 136.72, along with a poor IPL 2026 season in which he made only 270 runs in 13 innings at an average of 20.76 and a strike rate of 147.54. (ESPNcricinfo)
