‘Sarpanch’ Shreyas Iyer breaks Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli’s record in first match as India captain, becomes … | Cricket News:

Shreyas Iyer begins his tenure as India’s T20I captain with a record already to his name. When he walked out for the toss in the opening T20I against Ireland in Belfast on Friday, he became the player who led most of the T20s before he made his captaincy debut for India in the format.When he walked out for the toss against Ireland in Belfast on Friday, Iyer had captained 114 T20 matches in franchise and domestic cricket – the most by an Indian before taking charge of the national side in the format.Led most T20s during T20I as India’s first captain

In the toss, Iyer chose to bat first with the Civil Service Cricket Club. India went in with three specialist fast bowlers, a pace-bowling all-rounder and two spinners.Teenage batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was left out of the playing XI despite expectations that he could make his international debut.Explaining the decision, Iyer said, “Unfortunately it’s not (Sooryavanshi’s debut). He is a gun player but we have some exceptional players who have done well for us so we are backing them. He will get his chance when the time comes,” backing the opening combination of Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan.At 31 years and 202 days, Iyer also became the third oldest player to make his T20I captaincy debut for India, behind Shikhar Dhawan (35 years, 232 days) and Suryakumar Yadav (33 years, 70 days). Rohit Sharma (30 years, 234 days) and KL Rahul (30 years, 143 days) complete the top five.India’s all-time T20I debutant captain

Iyer made his T20I debut against New Zealand in 2017. In 52 T20 internationals, he scored 1,104 runs at a strike rate of 136.12.