Why Shreyas Iyer needed the IPL 2024 win more than Pat Cummins?

A young Shreyas Iyer’s only aim in 2015 was to pass his B.Com exams successfully, as a Facebook post recently resurfaced about how nervous he was for the same, given he had not paid much heed to his books.

The post was dated May 26th, 2015, nearly two months after Pat Cummins celebrated Australia’s 5th World Cup win as part of their squad. Back then, the 29-year-old was hardly anywhere near the reckoning of the Indian team.

Fast forward to IPL 2024, Iyer and Cummins were up against one another as captains, with the trophy of the most lucrative T20 league on the line.

Iyer was up against a man, who had cultivated a cult following for himself after stunning India in the cauldron that was the Narendra Modi Stadium in the 2023 World Cup final. He was one of the most expensive players in the auction ahead of the season and had justified it by turning the face of the SunRisers Hyderabad, leading them to the final, thereby having his eye on another heist.

The mercurial Cummins also had the backing of many to ‘silence the crowd' once again. Cummins could do nothing wrong and had the world right at his feet.

Iyer, on the other hand, had hardly anything going for him since a decorated 2023 World Cup campaign, headlined by a swashbuckling hundred in the semi-final against New Zealand.

The Test series against England had not seen runs off his bat and his alleged decision not to play in the Ranji Trophy cost him the BCCI contract. Iyer had not even been included in the T20 World Cup 2024 squad. Hence, IPL was the first step to claw his way back to being a regular fixture in the national set-up across formats.

Shreyas Iyer’s trials and tribulations leading up to IPL:

Shreyas Iyer with the trophy.

The cancellation of the contract was arguably the nadir in Iyer’s international career since debuting in 2017, but the criticism around his batting ruled the roost and to some extent, had been justified.

Even during his run-scoring spree in the 2023 World Cup, the first half of the campaign hadn’t gone up to plan, characterized by rash shots against England and Australia. And hence, prompted by some to wield the axe. He was also in slight doubt for IPL 2024 due to supposedly a back injury and many remain unperturbed by how much it would affect the Knight Riders in the tournament.

A stunning revelation also came to light a night before the IPL 2024 final, when the Mumbai-born batter hardly found anyone to take his back injury seriously. As quoted by ESPN Cricinfo, he claimed:

“I was definitely struggling after the World Cup in the longer format. When I raised my concern, no one was agreeing to it. But at the same time, the competition is with myself."

"When the IPL was approaching, all I wanted to see was that I’ve put my best foot forward and whatever planning and strategizing we did before it, basically if we could execute it to the best of our abilities, we would have been in a great spot – and that’s where we are right now.”

Iyer isn’t the captain on whom the cameras will hover constantly, unlike Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and MS Dhoni. He is unlike Rohit Sharma, who will bicker with hilarious punchlines. He is different from Virat Kohli, who will move from one end of the ground to the other with the same intensity alongside some expletive-laden words throughout. He is unlike MS Dhoni either, who will wear a calm camouflage despite the pressure being at its peak. He is normal.

It’s the best way to describe him. A normal captain – who keeps things simple, steps up with the bat, wilts under pressure, but backs his bowlers enough, who did deliver – of the highest possible quality to demolish the SunRisers Hyderabad on multiple occasions.

Not that Iyer is flawless. He is slightly inconsistent with the bat and injury-prone. But Iyer needed to become an IPL-winning captain and give BCCI the option as a future captain candidate. Indian cricket cannot afford to lose the potential of having a solid limited-overs captain in the coming years and the need for it is arising quickly. Cummins emerging with another elite trophy wouldn’t have been a bad result by any means, for he is a very likable guy.

But the potential of the middle-order batter becoming the winning captain was incontrovertible and the one-sided final only justified why the 29-year-old was head and shoulders above Cummins on the night.

It's Iyer’s team slightly more than Gautam Gambhir’s:

Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir with KKR co-owmer SRK. (Credits: Twitter)

Another important reason why the Mumbai-born batter had to lift the trophy was to make people realize how much the right-handed batter had slipped under the radar amid the brawn and brains of Gautam Gambhir. This is not to discredit Gambhir’s contribution and the injection of self-belief in the class of 2024.

Instead, it is equally crucial to see that the one making the on-field decisions deserves to get the cake. As commentator Ian Bishop rightly mentioned in the first line of his congratulatory message on X, “Well done to Shreyas Iyer’s @KKRiders on a third IPL title.”