Shreyas Iyer has gotten a big pat on the back from his Punjab Kings assistant coach Brad Haddin to be the next in line for Indian captaincy after taking his side to the final of the 2025 edition of the IPL. Iyer, who became the captain to lead three teams to an IPL final with the Kings, a year after winning the title with the Kolkata Knight Riders, had his best-ever season with the bat and even though he faltered at the final hurdle, it was a memorable season for the men in red, who have been perennial underperformers in the tournament.
The scorecard may show that the Kings came close in the final but the game turned with Iyer's wicket, who, a couple of nights before, had played one of the all-time knocks of the IPL and eventually went in favour of RCB when Krunal Pandya dismissed Josh Inglis, getting him caught at long-on. Haddin, who was still gutted after the result, made a revelation regarding the second qualifier, where Iyer went against the grain to bowl first against the Mumbai Indians and ended up proving his decision on his own, playing an unbeaten 87 off just 41 to become the first team to chase 200-plus score against the five-time champions.
"You do all your planning for the game and at the stadium in Ahmedabad, everything says bat first. You go through your analytics and go through your match-ups, have your team stuff. And this is where our captain hasn't got enough credit and I hope, when they come down to pick an Indian captain, they really start to consider Iyer. He was outstanding through the whole tournament," Haddin told the Willow Talk Podcast.
"Anyways, we are batting first. But he goes, 'Nah, we're bowling.' Punter goes, 'Okay, let the captain make the choice.' He then said, 'No, I'll win the game and I'm going to bat second."
"Everything leads to batting first; we bowl. Captain comes out in the second innings and plays one of the best IPL knocks I have ever seen to get us into the final," Haddin added.
Iyer has won 50 matches as captain in the IPL out of 87 played and is already talked about among the likes of MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir. Will Iyer get India's captaincy at least in ODIs? It's a difficult question to answer but the Mumbaikar has definitely done everything what was asked of him and even what wasn't.