India pacer Sandeep Sharma believes IPL success shouldn’t be used to judge international captaincy credentials.
Shreyas Iyer is certainly one of the finest cricketing talents of the country and he has also proved his leadership skills in the last two seasons of the IPL and based on his performances, many are suggesting that he is the ideal candidate to lead the T20I Indian team after Suryakumar yadav retires. Recently, the Indian pacer Sandeep Sharma shed his opinion on his matter and he doesn’t seem to agree with this suggestion.
Sandeep Sharma has pushed back against the idea that Shreyas Iyer should be considered a replacement for Suryakumar Yadav as India’s T20I captain solely based on his performances as an IPL leader. While Shreyass Iyer has had a successful run in the IPL, Sandeep feels this should not be the basis for national team leadership.
In recent seasons, Shreyas Iyer has guided two different franchises — Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings — to the IPL finals, winning the title with KKR in the most recent edition. Earlier, he also captained Delhi Capitals during their maiden IPL final appearance in 2020. Beyond his leadership, Shreyas Iyer enjoyed a standout IPL 2025 season with the bat, amassing over 600 runs at an impressive strike rate of 175.07.
Despite these achievements, he was not selected in India’s squad for the upcoming 2025 Asia Cup which is set to be played in the T20I format in the UAE. This led to discussions in some quarters about whether his IPL leadership and form should earn him a place in the national side, potentially even as captain.
Sandeep Sharma, however, disagrees with such comparisons. He stated that equating IPL captaincy success with international leadership capability is misguided. Using Suryakumar Yadav’s case as an example, he pointed out that Surya has not captained any IPL side but still leads the Indian T20I team. Similarly, Rohit Sharma who led India across all the formats for years didn’t captain an IPL team in recent seasons either. According to Sandeep Sharma, these examples prove that franchise captaincy is not a valid metric for national team selection or leadership roles.
He emphasised that the Indian Premier League should be viewed as a domestic tournament and not directly linked with international cricket. Managing an IPL side, which includes a mix of young Indian players and overseas names, is different from leading the national team that involves handling a set group of elite players under different pressures.
Sandeep Sharma believes that people should stop drawing direct comparisons between IPL performance and international cricket. He urged fans and commentators to better understand the nuances of the game before making suggestions based on franchise cricket success. According to him, IPL and international cricket are entirely separate arenas and one should not be used to judge the other.
