Is Shreyas Iyer, toast of IPL, only a white-ball bet for Indian cricket?

Not many would have given Punjab Kings a chance to make it to the top two for qualifier 1 of IPL 2025 when the season began. The exalted position was something they last achieved more than a decade ago in 2014, when they lost the final to Kolkata Knight Riders, and what followed thereafter was a story of flattering to deceive on occasion, or simply rank inconsistency.

All that changed this time under the collaboration of skipper Shreyas Iyer and head coach Ricky Ponting, both of whom were instrumental in bucking the trend for Delhi Capitals and taking them to the 2020 final in Dubai. Shreyas, who not so long ago was being touted as a prospect for India’s white-ball captaincy, proved his Midas touch once again when he became the only captain to guide three different franchises into the IPL play-offs: Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and now Punjab Kings.

An enviable record in a season when both the batter and captain in Shreyas stayed largely unaffected with the second highest price tag of Rs 26.75 crore — while the same cannot be said about his national teammate Rishabh Pant (Rs 27 crore) or Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 23.75 crore). The Mumbai batter is ninth in the list of top IPL run-scorers for the season (514 runs) ahead of the final group league between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday.  

Speaking at the post-match presentation after humbling Mumbai Indians in their last league game on Monday, Shreyas said: “The camaraderie has been there for the past few years between Ricky and me. He gives me a lot of freedom and lets me be decisive on the field. All these things have culminated in a great way.’’

“Every individual stepped up at the right time. From the first game, we’ve been in the mindset of wanting to win despite the situation. Players have put their hands up when we were in tough spots,’’ said the captain, who deep down, must be nursing a lot of hurt at having missed the bus altogether for the England Test series.

While one may call this brilliant run poetic justice of sorts, how long will Shreyas have to live with the tag of white-ball specialist? There is almost a streak of Rohit Sharma in his early career graph if chief selector Ajit Agarkar’s remark is anything to go by: “Yes, Shreyas Iyer has played well in domestic cricket but at the moment, there is no room for him in the Test Team.”

The snub for Shreyas, along with Sarfaraz Khan, has been one of the biggest talking points in the aftermath of the selection for England, while doubts are now being raised about the former’s ability to negotiate the moving ball in English conditions. History shows it has always been difficult for batters to adjust to the conditions on their first visit to England, even for someone like Virat Kohli, who looked all at sea against James Anderson in 2014 before coming back strongly during the 2018 series.

Shreyas, who has been in the form of his life since the 2023 ICC World Cup, extended the confidence garnered from there to the red-ball format at the domestic level, piling up 480 runs at an average of 68.57 in seven Ranji Trophy innings. He had a lean patch in Tests last year with his last match being against England in Visakhapatnam in 2024, but in the 14 Tests he has played since, Shreyas has aggregated 811 runs at an average of 36.86, with a ton on debut and five half-centuries.

The last home Test series against England, which India won 4-1, missed Kohli for ‘personal reasons’ along with K.L. Rahul owing to injury, a situation which opened up opportunities for Shreyas, Sarfaraz, Rajat Patidar and Dhruv Jurel. Sarfaraz and Dhruv shone brightly during that series, but Sarfaraz has also missed the bus after his stint as a passenger during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

Incidentally, Sarfaraz still has a window of opportunity as he is a part of the India A squad already in England for three matches but Shreyas is out of the equation for reasons best known to the selectors. He certainly deserves a little more clarity as to whether he will henceforth ever be considered for the longer format, as he has already spent eight years in international red-ball cricket since 2017.

There is a perception that he will be vulnerable against the seam and swing in English conditions but then, this was the right time to throw the gauntlet at him.