Shreyas Iyer appointed as India's T20 captain, Surya dropped; Sooryavanshi set for India debut

Shreyas Iyer (File pic)

BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia has officially announced that Shreyas Iyer will take over as the new captain of the Indian T20I team, starting with the upcoming tour of Ireland later this month. Suryakumar Yadav, who recently guided India to the 2026 T20 World Cup championship, has been completely omitted from the squad.

Young batter Tilak Varma has been named the new vice-captain for the shortest format. The left-handed batter has impressed with his consistency and has been handed the deputy captain role. Varma has already captained the India A team and impressed with his leadership skills.

Suryakumar Yadav's exclusion comes as a major shock after his successful World Cup exploits. The star batter has been left out of the squads for both the United Kingdom tour and the upcoming 2026 Asian Games after a poor recent run of form.

Iyer, who was named India's permanent ODI vice-captain last October, has not actually featured in a T20I match since December 2023. However, his impressive captaincy during that period in the IPL helped the Mumbai-born batter.

The selection also features a historic call-up for 15-year-old batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for the matches in Ireland and England. The teenage prodigy earned his place on the national team after finishing as the leading run-scorer in the 2026 edition of the IPL.

At just 15 years and 71 days old, Sooryavanshi is set to rewrite cricket history by becoming the youngest cricketer ever to represent the senior Indian men's team, a record previously held by the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.

Additionally, the selectors have bolstered the squad for the UK trip by adding spinner Ravi Bishnoi, alongside pacers Harshit Rana and all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy.

The international summer begins with India facing Ireland in two T20Is on June 26 and 28, followed immediately by five T20Is against England running from July 1 to July 11.

India Squad For England & Ireland T20Is:

Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Sanju Samson (wk), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakaravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi