Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has shed light on Shreyas Iyer’s appointment as Punjab Kings for the upcoming IPL 2025. PBKS is yet to win an IPL title and Chopra noted that Iyer would be their 17th captain in the 18th season.
Meanwhile, Iyer led Kolkata Knight Riders to glory in IPL 2024 as he led from the front. The right-hander had also taken Delhi Capitals to the final in IPL 2020. Iyer will join forces with newly appointed PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting and will look to breach the Mohali-based franchise’s title drought.
The Mumbai batter was bagged for a whopping amount of INR 26.75 crore in IPL 2025 mega-auction, making him the second most expensive player in IPL history after Rishabh Pant.
Shikhar Dhawan led PBKS in the first phase of the last edition of the IPL whereas all-rounder Sam Curran took the captaincy baton after the former was injured.
“Shreyas Iyer has become the Punjab Kings’ captain. He is the 17th captain and the 18th season is about to start in a couple of months. However, let’s be fair, it was already known,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“When the auction was happening and it was going beyond ₹25 crore, you said it was done. You spend that much money only for the captain and not for anyone else. So if you spent that much money, Shreyas Iyer had to be the captain. There was no doubt about that,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Chopra noted that Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals had also bid for Shreyas Iyer as they wanted a captain.
“Delhi ran after him for a long time because I think they had promised him that they would make him the captain and asked him to come out of KKR. It seemed like KKR, since they had won, might also spend a lot of money to actually hold on to Shreyas Iyer, and might have realized later that they didn’t get a captain,” Chopra observed.
The renowned commentator observed that Iyer will become the first Indian captain to lead three different franchises in the IPL.
“Shreyas Iyer has become the first Indian who will captain three different franchises. He has captained two and will captain the third – Delhi, Kolkata and Punjab. That’s another history he has created,” he said.
“17 captains in 18 seasons – it is a very bad sort of record. It seems okay at the start and then you feel there is some problem. Why do these marriages not last for long? Sometimes the captain wants to leave and they sack the captain on other occasions. The coaches are sacked at times. There is plenty that keeps happening in Punjab,” Chopra observed.
IPL 2025 will begin on March 21 onwards.
