Shreyas Iyer Reveals Rohit Sharma, SKY Advice on T20I Captaincy

Key Takeaways:

• The new T20I captain of India, Shreyas India has credited former skippers, Rohit Sharma and SKY for their unprecedented support.
• Iyer took over the leadership role from Suryakumar Yadav after he guided the team to its third T20 World Cup Win earlier this year.
• After a humiliating 2-0 series loss against Ireland, Iyer looks to turn around the fortunes in the series against England.

Shreyas Iyer has spoken out in a candid manner about the support and backing he has got from the senior members of the team, including Rohit Sharma and former captain Suryakumar Yadav.

Iyer took over the captaincy from SKY after he led India to its third T2O world cup triumph. The BCCI decided to hand over the leadership to Iyer from SKY primarily because of the latter’s poor performance with the bat both in the World Cup and the IPL.

India, now under Iyer’s captaincy, head to England for their next phase of the UK tour and are slated to play a five-match series against England, starting Wednesday. Iyer and his team will look to turn around the fortunes of the team after the 2-0 series loss against Ireland.

Iyer will look to put behind the Ireland loss and reset the narrative when India takes on England in the opening match at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street. Before the start of the series, Iyer reflected on the relationship he shares with Rohit Sharma, his Mumbai Ranji teammate, and described their conversations as effortless, and even compared them to simply chatting with an elder brother.

The Mumbai lad, Iyer, also spoke warmly about SKY, someone he has shared plenty of time with during the domestic cricket tournaments in the post. “Surya, again, a similar character. I have played with him a lot of domestic cricket and just before coming here he gave me inputs about how the management is going to be, how the players are going to be in this certain situation. So yes, definitely decent interaction and a lot to learn at the same time,” he said.

Play with an aggressive and fearless mindset: Iyer’s advice to the team

Looking forward to the England series, Iyer made it very clear to the team about the kind of approach he wants to instil in the squad. He spoke about wanting his team to appear intimidating to their opponents, carry an aggressive and fearless attitude every time they step onto the field.

“I just like to be menacing to the opponents,” He said. “I want to have that aggressive, fearless approach when I step onto the field. I want my troops to rally around that mindset where the opponents are a bit intimidated by our personality, by our appearance on the field.

And, this is what I want each and every individual in the team to think about because it's like a war for me when I step onto the field. I want to win every match and that’s the mindset I want to imbibe in each and every individual representing the country and wanting us to challenge the opponents as well.”

England vs India: T20I Series schedule

India’s tour of England begins with the first of five T20Is in Durham on July 1 and the series will conclude with the third ODI at The Lord’s on July 19. Here is a full schedule: