Shocking! Shreyas Iyer rejected India's massive captaincy offer
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Indian batter Shreyas Iyer turned down the offer to captain the West Zone side for the upcoming Duleep Trophy edition, though he has made himself available as a player for the domestic tournament.
Shreyas Iyer has been the centrepiece of speculations ever since his snub from the Indian squad for the upcoming ACC tournament. Despite having performed stunningly in domestic as well as IPL games, he has not been picked for the Indian T20I side for the Asia Cup.
Shreyas Iyer denies the captaincy role for the Duleep Trophy
Iyer reportedly turned down the offer to captain the West Zone side in the Duleep Trophy, after which the national selectors chose to hand it over to his teammate, Shardul Thakur.
Shreyas Iyer had made himself available for the Duleep Trophy, which was cited as the first move of the batter to prove his inclination to make a comeback into the Indian red-ball side.
"Yes, it's true Iyer turned down the offer from the West Zone selection committee to captain the team. After that, the chairman of the committee, Sanjay Patil, who is also the Mumbai chief selector, approached Thakur to lead West Zone, an opportunity that Thakur gladly accepted," a source said as quoted by Mumbai Mirror's Gaurav Gupta.
Shreyas Iyer had begun training with the white-ball, expecting a call-up for the Asia Cup
Reports suggest that Shreyas was expecting a call-up for the Asia Cup and had begun white-ball training alongside the coach Pravin Amre at the indoor facility in MCA. However, he was not selected for the Asia Cup squad.
Since the Asia Cup 2025 was scheduled to start on the 9th of September and he would not be available for the majority of the season, Iyer, citing such a situation, had denied the Duleep Trophy captaincy for the West Zone.
Newly appointed skipper Shardul Thakur will now be leading the West Zone side. He scored 505 runs for Mumbai, also picking 35 wickets in the last Ranji season.
West Zone selectors hint at the end of red-ball career for veterans
The West Zone selectors denied a chance to select players like Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, which ruled out their chance for a red-ball comeback. Pujara announced his retirement today after being left out of the Indian Test side.
Cheteshwar Pujara played 103 Test matches for the country, with his last appearance coming in June 2023 against Australia, and he scored 7195 runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 centuries and 35 fifties.
Mumbai's new U-19 head coach, Kiran Powar, will be serving as the West Zone head coach for the tournament, which will start at the BCCI Centre of Excellence on the 28th of August. This also marks the start of the 2025-26 domestic season.
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