“Shreyas Iyer Has No Say In Selection, Gautam Gambhir Taking Calls”- Sensational Revelation After IND vs IRE

Shreyas Iyer and Gautam Gambhir [Source: AFP]

India lost their first-ever series to Ireland, who demolished the World Champions by 2-nil in Belfast. Shreyas Iyer had a dreadful start to his captaincy career, but head coach Gautam Gambhir is to be blamed equally.

Iyer, regarded as one of the shrewdest minds in India, was appointed as Suryakumar Yadav’s successor despite not being in the squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup. The BCCI removed the T20I captain Suryakumar after he won the T20 World Cup 2026 at home. 

Moreover, under SKY, India had never lost a series, but the decline in his form became the reason for his exit. 

The Gambhir-Suryakumar combination used to work tremendously well for Team India, while the results in other formats had been rather topsy-turvy. However, the horrible series defeat in Ireland marked the first T20I series defeat under Gambhir's coaching. 

Batting remained in focus as Ireland demolish India

After the shameful defeat, there has been a lot of buzz, with fans and pundits questioning the questionable blunders the Men in Blue made in Ireland in the first-ever T20I series after winning the T20 World Cup. 

Also Read: Potential Changes India Could Make for England T20Is After Ireland Whitewash

Although Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy and Hardik Pandya were the absentees, India fielded a burly batting order. However, their batting line-up failed to chase down scores of 183 and 155 in the two T20Is vs Ireland.

As the batters had a rather disappointing outing, the team management has decided to back them even in England, as they were mainstays for the 2026 T20 World Cup victory. However, things are not as simple as they were being demonstrated. 

Gautam Gambhir, not Shreyas Iyer, making all decisions

According to the latest reports from Cricblogger, Gautam Gambhir is said to be making all decisions in the dressing rooms and on the field as well. Moreover, the head coach is solely responsible for deciding whether to field or bat first after winning the toss. 

“Even after winning the toss, it is Gambhir who appears to have the final say on what the Indian team will or will not do,” the report from Cricblogger read.

Allegedly, Gambhir was insistent on not handing a debut to the young Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in Ireland, as he wanted to back Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. 

“The head coach instead persisted with Abhishek Sharma and continued to back his preferred option, Sanju Samson, ahead of the youngster (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi),” the report added. 

BCCI wanted Shreyas Iyer for T20 WC, but Gautam Gambhir intervened

It has been time and again speculated that Gautam Gambhir was against the selectors’ decision to elect Shreyas Iyer as India’s T20I captain. On the contrary, the head coach wanted either Sanju Samson or Ishan Kishan to succeed Suryakumar Yadav. However, the BCCI had intervened during Iyer’s selection. 

If reports are to be believed, the BCCI was keen on picking the current T20I captain in the 2026 T20 World Cup squad, but Washington Sundar was picked ahead of Iyer over Gambhir’s vouching. 

“The selectors were keen to include Shreyas in India’s T20 World Cup squad, while Gambhir had pushed for Washington Sundar to be picked instead,” Cricblogger said. 

Sundar, who was dropped from India’s starting 11 in the IND vs IRE 2nd T20I, is in both white-ball squads for the series against England. 

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