‘Saying Shreyas Iyer should get India captaincy because he led his team to IPL final is senseless thinking’ – Sandeep Sharma [Exclusive]

After the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selectors snubbed Shreyas Iyer while naming the squad for the upcoming Asia Cup, fans and experts were critical of the move, especially because of the right-handed batter’s brilliant performance in the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The Mumbai batter led Punjab Kings to their first final in 11 years. Apart from impressing as a captain, Shreyas finished as the sixth-highest run-getter in the tournament, amassing 604 runs in 17 innings at an average of 50.33 and a strike rate of 175.07. A section of the cricket fraternity has also urged the BCCI to give Shreyas an opportunity to showcase his potential as a leader at the international level.

However, Rajasthan Royals’ speedster Sandeep Sharma said that this opinion didn’t hold much sense. During an exclusive interview with CricTracker, the 32-year-old explained how captaining the Indian team is different as a challenge to being the leader at the domestic level.

“See, this debate that he as a captain took his team to the finals is senseless. Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] is not doing the captaincy of any franchise. So that is not the criteria to be the captain of the Indian side. And for the last three years, Rohit was not doing the captaincy of any franchise. But still, he was the captain of T20 Indian team and one day side is still the same captain. And he was the captain of all three formats of Tests. So that is not the criteria that what you do in IPL. IPL is totally different. It is a domestic league,” Sharma opined.

“Like that BCCI has its own domestic league, right? And when you are picking an international team, there you are picking 15 people. So you pick a captain who will manage 15 people better there. Here in IPL, you have a lot of domestic players, a lot of young players. Some of them come from overseas. But here you are picking someone who will manage 15 people better here. So this debate, I feel senseless that what is he doing in IPL. These two teams are totally different teams. Indian team is a totally different team. IPL team is a totally different team. So I feel people need to learn and people need to understand more about this thing before commenting,” he added.

You can’t make everyone happy as a selector: Sandeep Sharma

During the same interview, Sharma was asked whether India is one pacer short in the seam-bowling department for the Asia Cup. The Patiala-born answered in the negative and explained how all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s presence gives the side a great deal of balance.

No, I don’t think so. All these people have been doing so well over the years. Jasprit Bumrah, you can’t say anything about him. Arshdeep, one of the best T20 bowlers for the last three years for India. And then Harshit Rana obviously has done so well in IPL and domestic circuit. So he obviously deserves the place. And fourth one is Hardik, which, you know, he gave that balance to the side. If he bowls four overs and batting, we all know that. So I think completely balanced side.

Sharma also shared his views on Prasidh Krishna not being picked in India’s squad despite finishing as the highest wicket-taker in IPL 2025. The former India U-19 pacer said that it is difficult for the selectors to make everyone happy.

See, you can’t make everyone happy. As a selector or if you’re doing a job, so you can’t make everyone happy. If you put Prasidh, then a lot of people come and say, put someone else. So I feel as a selector or when you’re doing that job, you should be bothered about so many people. You should be bothered from yourself. You should be knowing that, yes, according to me, I have made the best team. After that, you should go and sleep peacefully. As I said, you can’t make everyone happy.

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