Shreyas Iyer is “in the zone” and it’s showing in his form and in the results Punjab Kings (PBKS) have notched up, both in IPL 2025 and in IPL 2026 so far, R Ashwin has said. He also suggested that Iyer should be in India’s T20I team whether or not it’s clear who he should be replacing.
“I’m not just looking at the runs being made, the volume of it, or the sixes or the fours, but just the sheer presence on the ground. And that tells you a story,” Ashwin said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut programme. “When Shreyas Iyer is just marking his guard – every single time and for the last five games in this edition – it just looks like he’s in a zone that’s probably not conceivable for people who have not seen the game in the same way [as cricketers]. It’s called a zone. You get into phases in your career where you almost feel like [for] a year or two, you don’t put a foot wrong.
“And that happens because you’re in a zone. Everything is ticking. Starting from what you’re eating, when you’re sleeping, how you’re practicing. You hit a ball in the nets and you get the same ball when you play the first one and the next.”
Iyer has scored 50, 69* and 66 in his last three innings and has an overall strike rate of 187.96 in IPL 2026 at the moment.
“His sheer presence [at the crease] is terrifying the bowlers in many ways,” Ashwin said. “And how has he done that? His appetite to be able to upskill himself is sensational. I’ve played cricket for quite an amount of time. I’ve interacted with a lot of cricketers. Not many have the appetite to be able to leave what they’re good at and explore areas where they’re weak. You would have seen a lot of careers pan out where people have not worked on their weaknesses at all.
“And that journey is what I suggest as good to great. I personally think Shreyas has embarked on the journey of going from being good to being great. And I’m not saying he is great. I’m saying it’s a journey. It has been said that he can’t play the short ball. He said, ‘okay, I’ll pull the short ball in a Test match and get out, but I’m not shying away from the contest’. Pulling Jasprit Bumrah front of square over midwicket for a six. That’s probably inspirational to a lot of cricketers watching the game.
“At this point of time, if he is not going to find higher honours, it’s not his loss anymore. It’s ours that we can’t see him do what he is doing [for PBKS] for the Indian team, in national colours”
R Ashwin
“And then he is hitting fast bowlers down the ground. He has always been very good hitting it down the ground. But why is he doing it? Because people are not bowling short to him anymore. They know he is putting it away. And that’s sensational.”
Ashwin argued that the form with the bat has been helping his form as captain: PBKS reached the final of the IPL in 2025, and are the table-toppers with four wins out of five (and a washout) at this stage in IPL 2026.“Just the comfort that he is creating around the team, to say, we will have a brotherly conversation. It’s a brotherhood here,” Ashwin said. “At the end of the day, I have played in teams where there is always that layer that you can’t… You are just not able to go up to the captain or the coach and say, ‘I will deliver this for you’. And it’s happened. Just the fact that he has kept it simple like how it is being done in your gully or in your tennis-ball game back home, where we do this all the time with our captain or with our friend. That atmosphere is amazing.
“He is growing into the role of being a leader. And I think the way he is batting, he is growing into the role of a leader that the players are looking up to, which is a lethal combination.”
Shreyas Iyer is on a roll, both as batter and as captain, as IPL 2026•BCCI
Should Shreyas Iyer be in India’s T20I side? ‘Of course, yes’
The debate has been ongoing for a while now. Should Iyer be in India’s T20I side? That side, without Iyer in it, has won back-to-back T20 World Cups, and the argument against including Iyer is that there’s no one there he could replace.
“I can only say one thing. At this point of time, if he is not going to find higher honours, it’s not his loss anymore,” Ashwin said. “It’s ours that we can’t see him do what he is doing [for PBKS] for the Indian team, in national colours.
“Look, I look at it slightly differently. When somebody has to be there in the team, write their name down. You just need to pick 15. Write the best 15 names possible. Don’t worry about who is missing out. In the case of Yashaswi Jaiswal, for that matter, which I have always spoken about, the guy is an absolute monster. His hunger for runs is exceptional. It is also telling you the riches of Indian cricket in many ways.
“But is he [Iyer] good enough to be written down in a list that is being prepared for an India T20I side? Of course, yes. So you write it down in that order and not worry about who you are replacing and then figure out who is going to be a standby.”
