'He's got that selflessness…': Gautam Gambhir on Shreyas Iyer

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Team India is set to take on the West Indies in the five-match T20I series. The first match will be played on October 6 at the Ekana Cricket Stadium B Ground in Lucknow.

Ahead of the match, Team India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir heaped praise on Shreyas Iyer by saying that the right-handed batsman is flexible with his batting position.

“My first experience with Shreyas was when I actually went to KKR in 2024 where he was obviously captaining. And the best thing I liked about Shreyas was that he was actually willing to leave his batting position at times. He was so flexible that he was okay if someone went ahead of him,” he said on JioStar.

Gambhir then spoke about Iyer’s quality of being selfless, which he can carry in his captaincy journey.

“That is when I realised that the first and foremost quality of a good leader is how selfless you are. Shreyas has that quality, and that is a massive tick that he can carry for the rest of his journey as a captain. Because you can be hardworking, you can be disciplined, you can be fit, you can be the number one batter. But if you are not selfless, then all those other things stand for nothing. But Shreyas has got all of those things, and on top of that, he’s got that selflessness as well,” said Gambhir.

On the other hand, Team India‘s senior selection committee has decided to withdraw Washington Sundar from the T20I series against the West Indies. The decision has been taken in view of the upcoming Test series against New Zealand. With the Ranji Trophy season commencing on October 11, Washington will get an opportunity to play red-ball cricket for his state team and prepare for the Test series.

Naman Dhir has been named as his replacement in the T20I squad.

It will be interesting to see if the visitors manage to bounce back and seal the T20I series against Team India.

IND vs WI 1st T20I: Full squads

India: Sanju Samson (WK), Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shreyas Iyer (C), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shivam Dube, Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mayank Yadav, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

West Indies: Akeal Hosein, Roston Chase, Shai Hope (C) (WK), Gudakesh Motie, Shimron Hetmyer, Amir Jangoo (WK), Keemo Paul, Shamar Springer, Rovman Powell, Romario Shepherd, Sherfane Rutherford, Matthew Forde, Kamil Pooran, Quentin Sampson, Jewel Andrew (WK), Shamar Joseph.

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