Less than a month to go before the beginning of Asia Cup 2025. BCCI is yet to announce the captain’s name, the vice-captain’s name, and mostly the full squad for the prestigious tournament. India played their last T20I in February this year. Asia Cup 2025 is scheduled to start on September 9. During 7-8 months, Indian cricket has witnessed a lot of things. The vacant spaces created by Sharma and Virat’s retirements from T20Is and Tests are yet to be filled. When India faced England in February for the T20Is, the squad was mostly filled by multiple emerging players and without some big names.

India won the 5-match T20I home series against England by 4-1. Strength of the squad, on-field performance, energy… everything looked well packed, but there is still some room for improvement. In the era of T20 cricket, players often struggle to maintain their consistency. To maintain a steady performance graph, management has to create a strong squad on pen and paper with the best talents from the country. Recent performances, past performances, medical updates, etc. can be considered as the parameters for selections in the squad.

If we combined all these criteria and tried to search for some top-level Indian cricketers, then Shreyas Iyer would definitely be a candidate who has everything to offer a team to become successful. Should BCCI consider Iyer for the upcoming Asia Cup? So far, 2025 has been a brilliant year for the Mumbai-born. After making a brilliant comeback in ODIS, the batter led Punjab Kings to the IPL 2025 final. Under pressure, he did his captaincy duties using presence of mind brilliantly and performed with consistency with the bat also.

Shreyas Iyer’s ODI stats, 2025:

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Shreyas Iyer’s IPL 2025 Stats:

Why should BCCI consider Shreyas Iyer for the 2025 Asia Cup? 

Dynamic Batting

Without any doubts, the inclusion of Shreyas Iyer into the squad will bolster both batting depth and strength. If we see his T20I batting stats according to batting positions, he can perform anywhere in the middle order. In his total 47 T20I innings, the right-handed batter came to bat at the number 3 position 19 times, came to bat at the number 4 position 10 times, and 13 times as the number 5 batter. On 4 occasions, he performed as the number 6 batter also. Though he got recognition as the number 3 and number 4 position batsman. In T20s, the middle order often plays a vital role in influencing the result of a match. If the Board at least considers Iyer as a reserve player, then they will have an option who can fill a weak link in the middle order. 

Shreyas Iyer’s T20I stats according to batting positions:

Leadership Qualities

Without mentioning the ability, describing the indispensableness of Shreyas Iyer will remain incomplete. Along with batting abilities, he redefined himself with his undisputed leadership qualities. In IPL 2024, Iyer helped Kolkata Knight Riders to win the title; in the following season, Punjab Kings qualified for the IPL 2025 final and became the second-best team of the campaign. Before his tenure with KKR and PBKS, Iyer was in the front to lead Delhi Capitals. He took over the captaincy mid-season in 2018 and led them to consecutive playoffs in 2019 and 2020, including a runners-up finish in 2020. 

If the reports are to be believed, Suryakumar Yadav is all set to be the captain of India's T20I side during the Asia Cup 2025. BCCI soon may have to find his replacement, as Yadav is already 34. Shubman Gill can enter into the squad after a thrilling Anderson-Tendulkar trophy where India made the five-match Test series scoreline 2-2 under Gill's leadership. There are some other claims suggesting BCCI can assign different captains for different formats. If the board applied split captaincy theory in real life as a long-time project, then it can be a great opportunity for Iyer, who has already made his name as an influential captain. 

As of now, Gill has done well as the Test team captain. Yadav may not serve for a long time as a captain in T20I, and Rohit Sharma, at present the captain of the ODI team, has already retired from T20Is and Tests. Apart from the Test captaincy part, the board may have to chalk down their future plans for the other two formats.