The assignment will be a crucial one for Shreyas, who lost series to Ireland and England right at the start of his T20I captaincy stint in India and could not win a match in either series.
Ahead of the first New Zealand T20I, former Indian cricketer and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar spoke on comparisons between skipper Shreyas Iyer and his predecessor Suryakumar Yadav, a T20 World Cup-winning captain, saying that the comparison is “out of the way”, given how much Iyer has played away from India already. He also said that winning in New Zealand will earn Shreyas respect of everyone around him. India will start the five-match T20I series against New Zealand with the first T20I from Thursday onwards. Shreyas, as a T20I captain, has still not delivered as per expectations away from home While he did win a series in Zimbabwe and an Asian Games gold in Japan.
So far in 21 T20Is as a captain, Iyer has won 11, lost eight and two matches have ended in no result, with his win percentage being just over 52. “It is not about whether he is worthy or not in comparison to Surya, because, at that time, India played a lot of series in India. Because that’s where you are judged the most, whenever you go to New Zealand and win in foreign conditions, I think that captain will feel in control of the team and earn the respect of everyone around him,.
As a skipper, Iyer has lost the series in Ireland, England and drawn against West Indies at home. But he has also won the Asian Games gold, against Zimbabwe away from home and against Afghanistan at home too.
So, a lot of the T20Is have been played away from home, in Zimbabwe and Japan,” he said. Speaking on JioHotstar’s ‘Out or Not Out’, JioStar expert Abhishek pointed out how much India played at home under Suryakumar, leading up to a home T20 World Cup while Iyer has travelled so much outside India already. They did not travel a lot. After Shreyas Iyer took up captaincy, they have gone to England, and now they are going to New Zealand. “I remember that, building up to the T20 World Cup, we were playing a lot more at home and in subcontinental conditions than away. So, that comparison is out of the way. So, if you win, like they say, it is a star on your chest, going to New Zealand and winning the series. It did not happen in England, but it happened here, if it does happen. So, it will be one of those things for him personally, that ‘I can win abroad as well’ as a captain,” he added. Six of these losses have come in overseas conditions, with two coming against West Indies at home recently. India’s T20I Squad: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson [WK], Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav.
