The major change in India's ODI setup came with Shubman Gill's appointment as the captain, taking over the charge from skipper Rohit Sharma.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to start building up the core group for the ICC Men’s CWC 2027 with the upcoming three ODIs in Australia, starting on October 19. The major change in India’s 50-over setup came with Shubman Gill’s appointment as the captain, taking over the charge from skipper Rohit Sharma. Moreover, handing over the vice-captaincy to Shreyas Iyer was another notable move from the management.
As the previously appointed vice captain Gill is all set to take up the leadership duties in the format, the management could have looked for KL Rahul for the role ahead of the forthcoming overseas series. But instead of the wicketkeeper-batter, India have opted for the 30-year-old to become the deputy of Gill while emphasising his brilliant leadership stints in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Notably, Shreyas possesses a stunning captaincy record across the three different franchises that he has represented in the cash-rich league as well as in the domestic circuit. The batter, who made his IPL debut for the Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils), took the team to their maiden Final in IPL 2020. Though he could not lift the title as the captain in that edition, Shreyas accomplished the unfulfilled feat with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2024.
In the latest season of the T20 tournament in 2025, the player once again proved his extraordinary leadership skills by qualifying the Punjab Kings for their second IPL Final after a decade in his maiden season with the franchise. Moreover, he had also led Mumbai to their second Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) title in 2024. Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has also opined the same for the PBKS skipper’s inclusion in the role.
“The fact that Shreyas Iyer has been made vice captain proves that IPL performances are valued a lot. KL Rahul could also have been vice-captain. Since 2020, he has been performing consistently, but he doesn’t even seem in contention,” stated the former player on his YouTube channel.
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While the 30-year-old has a great leadership record to his name, the gloveman has displayed a contradictory performance while donning the skipper’s hat. After taking up the captaincy, Rahul’s PBKS (then Kings XI Punjab) registered consecutive sixth-place finishes in IPL 2020 and IPL 2021.
Though the keeper-batter was able to qualify his new franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for back-to-back playoffs in the subsequent seasons of the league, the team’s search for the maiden title continued, followed by a disastrous seventh-place finish in the IPL 2024.
However, the batter’s limited ODI captaincy stint displays a 66.67 win percentage by winning eight of the 12 fixtures that he had captained in the format so far. But the pressure of captaincy has been visible in Rahul’s stats as the usual average of 51.71 saw a huge decline to just 33.55, alongside the strike rate decreasing to 82.28 from 88.87.
“Shreyas Iyer was picked as he led KKR to victory in IPL and also took Punjab to the final. He is being seen as a mainstay in the ODI set-up. The selectors don’t want to look backwards. Hence, they did not go for Rahul. They went for Shreyas, who fits into the scheme of things looking forward,” added Chopra.
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