Shreyas Iyer set to create HISTORY in IPL 2025, becomes first Indian cricketers to…

Shreyas Iyer will be Punjab Kings captain for IPL 2025 season.

Shreyas Iyer was for the first time announced officially to the position as the 16th captain of Punjab Kings in the history of Pakistan Super League (PSL) which started back in 2008. In the IPL 2025 mega auction, PBKS acquired Iyer for Rs 26.75 crore – the second-highest cost ever paid to a cricketer by a franchise in the T20 league.

Iyer will take over the captaincy from England all-rounder Sam Curran of the Preity Zinta co-owned Bollywood side. Besides, wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma captained the Punjab side for a match during the IPL 2024 season, in addition to Curran.

The Mumbai batter has now become the fourth player to captain three different teams in the IPL after Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Steve Smith. Apart from being the captain of Delhi Capitals, Iyer has also guided Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL 2024 title last year.

Kumar Sangakkara helmed three IPL teams during his Playing career: Punjab Kings (PBKS) in 2010, Deccan Chargers in 2012 and Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013. At the Same time, Mahela Jayawardene had a short stint as PBKS captain in one of the matches in 2010, was the permanent skipper for Kochi Tuskers Kerala in 2011, and captained the Delhi Daredevils, now known as Delhi Capitals, in 2013. In 2012, Steven Smith captained Pune Warriors once while in 2017 he took over Rising Pune Supergiants leading them in place of MS Dhoni. Smith also captained Rajasthan Royals (RR) from 2014 to 2020 overseeing 27 matches.

Shreyas Iyer has the unfortunate honour of being the first IPL winning captain to be let go by his franchise after the season in which the team won the title . Interestingly, he is also the only captain in the history of the IPL to have reached the finals with two different franchises. In 2020, he led the Delhi Capitals to their first appearance in the finals of IPL and lost to Mumbai Indians and later in 2024, Iyer led the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to the title with a comprehensive victory against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Iyer could make the history books of IPL by becoming the first captain to win the title with two different teams, and the other, captain with the possibility of achieving that is Hardik Pandya in the 2025 IPL season. With Iyer at the helm, PBKS will strive to realize their dream of winning the IPL title for the first time in the last 17 years.

Shreyas will become the 17th Man to captain this Punjab-based Franchise and the 12th full-time captain succeeding Yuvraj Singh, Kumar Sangakkara, Adam Gilchrist, George Bailey, David Miller, Murali Vijay, Glenn Maxwell, Ravichandran Ashwin, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan.

Interestingly, Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad also rank high following this phenomena of more than 10 captains as they have both achieved a record of 14 captains in their total franchise history.

To say I was stunned would be an understatement. I wasn’t really shocked sounding that amount but was definitely shocked with what it ended at. At that point, I knew the auction was crossing a certain limit and all I could do was plug my ears and leave the TV. The only decent option left seemed to leave for the washroom. With Hyderbad as my stage and a Syed Mushtaq encapsulating me while Iyer was captaining Mumbai, Iyer was left speechless. Iyer speaking to cumt.com after being appointed PBKS captain said, "Yeah, I was dumbstruck”.