All eyes on T20I captaincy as selectors convene to pick India’s squads for multiple tours

New Delhi: While the second session of the first day in the India-Afghanistan one-off Test match is underway in New Chandigarh, all eyes will be on Mumbai when the Ajit Agarkar‑led senior national selection committee will meet at the BCCI headquarters on Saturday to finalise India’s squads for the upcoming T20I tours of Ireland and England.

Following the meeting, Agarkar and BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia are scheduled to address a press conference at 1 pm on the fourth floor of the board’s headquarters. India will play two T20Is in Ireland on June 26 and 28, followed by five matches in England from July 1 to 11.

The Agarkar-led panel will also pick India’s ‘A’ squad for the red-ball series against Sri Lanka, to be played from June 25 to July 5, as well as release a shortlist of players for the Men’s T20 event at the Asian Games, to be played in Nagoya, Japan.

The biggest talking point, though, will be the future of T20I captaincy, which is all set to dominate discussions in the selection meeting. Suryakumar Yadav, who led India to a historic defence of the Men’s T20 World Cup title in March, has been in a prolonged lean patch.

He managed only 270 runs in 13 innings for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at an average of 20.76 and a strike rate of 147.54. Even in the World Cup, Suryakumar wasn’t at his prolific best — scoring 242 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 136.72. With Suryakumar turning 36 in September, it will be interesting to see if he will retain his captaincy or lose both the leadership armband and his place in the side.

Amongst the frontrunners to succeed Suryakumar, Shreyas Iyer has been the standout candidate. An in-form Iyer led Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL crown in 2024 and guided Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings to finals in 2020 and 2025, respectively. He also captained Mumbai to win the 2024/25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

If named as India’s 15th men’s T20I captain, it will cap off an extraordinary turn of events for Iyer, the current vice-captain in ODIs. Iyer wasn’t in the T20I set-up for the previous World Cup cycle, though he was in the squad for the series win over New Zealand earlier this year as a replacement for injured Tilak Varma.

Other leadership options include Hardik Pandya, who is currently working on his fitness at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru after back spasms hurt him in IPL 2026 and led India in 16 T20Is before. Other candidates for the leadership role include Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, and Sanju Samson. If not for the leadership role, the trio could be in the mix for the vice-captain’s role, too.

Deliberations will be there on including teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and two-time IPL-winning captain Rajat Patidar in the T20I team after the duo had a stellar time in IPL 2026 with the bat. But how the duo will be accommodated in the line-up, already having Samson, Abhishek Sharma, and Ishan Kishan in the top order, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, with India’s Test team set to play a crucial two-game series in Sri Lanka in August, the selectors may also send senior red‑ball players to feature in the shadow ‘A’ tour for early acclimatisation of batting in spin-friendly conditions and bowling with the red Kookaburra ball.

With India chasing crucial World Test Championship points in a bid to enter the final in 2027, the likes of KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, B Sai Sudharsan, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, and Ravindra Jadeja could be included in the ‘A’ team squad, especially with the games set to happen in Galle, a regular Test venue in Sri Lanka.

Fast bowling all-rounder Auqib Nabi, who picked 60 wickets in Jammu and Kashmir, winning the Ranji Trophy earlier this year, could be included in the India ‘A’ squad after missing out on a spot in the squad for the Afghanistan Test. In all, Saturday promises to give answers to a lot of high-stakes questions, while setting the tone for a crucial few months for Indian cricket in both the shortest and longest formats.

IANS