Shreyas Iyer has endured a rough start to life as the Indian captain in the T20I format. The 31-year-old was given the leadership role after impressing everyone in the IPL. Iyer had led Kolkata Knight Riders to a title win in 2024 and followed it up by helping Punjab Kings reach the final the next season.

The right-handed batter began his Indian captaincy stint with a series loss to Ireland. He has also lost two of the three games during the ongoing England series. The latest loss took place on Tuesday when the Men in Blue lost to England by a massive 125 runs. The visitors were also bowled out for 76, their second -lowest total in this format.

Ex-Indian wicketkeeper and batter Parthiv Patel showed some support to Shreyas, who has been under massive pressure. The 41-year-old, while speaking on JioStar, said, “The result hasn’t been in Iyer’s favour; there is no doubt about it. The way India is playing at the moment, if we try to judge his captaincy, it looks like Iyer hasn’t made any mistakes as a captain.”

Parthiv also added, “In the middle over, he knew that wickets were needed between the 13th and 16th over of the game. Shreyas brought back his key bowlers and tried to close out the game. Didn’t see anything lacking in the way he led the side and was using his resources.”

Former India stumper winner bats for Sanju’s inclusion

Gujarat’s Ranji Trophy-winning skipper said that Sanju Samson should be included in the playing XI, since the team was predominantly filled with left-handed batters. “Can make Samson bat in the middle-order or even at three, where he can swap places with Ishan Kishan and Iyer batting at five, so numbers three to five are sorted.”

The fourth game of the series is to be played on Thursday, and it is not clear if the playing XI will stay the same or if there will be changes made. Tilak Varma had yet another bad day with the bat, scoring just three runs from 11 balls. Left-handed batters could be rested if they want to bring CSK’s opener back into the fold and change their batting order.