Mumbai: Winds of change swept across India’s T20I set-up as Shreyas Iyer on Saturday took over the captaincy from Suryakumar Yadav, and wonder kid Vaibhav Sooryavanshi found a place in the squad for the twin tour of Ireland and England.
At 15 years and 71 days old, Sooryavanshi becomes the youngest ever player to feature in an Indian cricket team, surpassing the long-standing record held by the great Sachin Tendulkar.
India will travel to Ireland for two T20Is (June 26 and 28), followed by a five-match T20I series against England between July 1 and 11.
Tilak Varma has replaced Axar Patel as the vice-captain of the T20I squad.
Apart from Shreyas and Sooryavanshi’s inclusions, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravi Bishnoi and Prince Yadav were also included in the squad, while Rinku Singh and Kuldeep Yadav were left out of the squad that won the T20 World Cup. Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah were rested.
The tour of Ireland and England is India’s first T20I series since Suryakumar, 35, led them to a successful defence of the T20 World Cup trophy in March. However, he will be 38 before the next T20 World Cup in 2028. The debate around his position arose following a lukewarm 2026 T20 World Cup, where he scored 242 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 136.72, and a poor IPL 2026, where he made only 270 runs in 13 innings at an average of 20.76 and a strike rate of 147.54.
His successor, Shreyas, 31, has not played a T20I since December 2023 due to India’s inability to find a place for him, with Suryakumar and Tilak occupying middle-order positions. Shreyas was most recently selected as an injury replacement during the home T20I series against New Zealand in January, but did not play a game because India preferred to pick the players who were going to play in the T20 World Cup that followed.
Shreyas, however, has proven captaincy credentials, having led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to the IPL title in 2024, and Delhi Capitals (DC) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) to the final in 2020 and 2025. He scored 604 runs at a strike rate of 175.07 in IPL 2025 and 498 runs at a strike rate of 168.81 in IPL 2026.
Meanwhile, Sooryavanshi has become the youngest player selected in an Indian men’s squad since Sachin Tendulkar in the late 1980s, following a blockbuster IPL season where he made 776 runs at a strike rate of 237.30. Before the T20I tour of Ireland and England, Sooryavanshi will play for India A in a tri-series in Sri Lanka, also involving Afghanistan from June 9 to 21.
If Sooryavanshi makes his debut in Ireland or England, he will become the first India player to make his international debut before turning 16. Tendulkar made his Test debut at 16 years and 205 days and his ODI debut at 16 years and 238 days. Washington Sundar is India’s youngest T20I debutant, having won his first cap in that format at 18 years and 80 days.
India play Ireland in two T20Is in Belfast on June 26 and 28, followed by five T20Is in England from July 1 to 11.
Keeper-batter Dhruv Jurel, meanwhile, will captain India A in two four-day matches in Galle against Sri Lanka A in June-July, in a shadow tour of the senior Test team’s upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. The India A squad includes a number of current and recent members of the Test squad, including batters B Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal, spin-bowling allrounder Harsh Dubey, seamers Gurnoor Brar and Anshul Kamboj, and wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan, as well as Auqib Nabi, whose chart-topping 60 wickets at 12.56 led Jammu & Kashmir to a historic maiden Ranji Trophy title.
One interesting inclusion in the squad is of Uttar Pradesh legspinner Zeeshan Ansari, who last played a first-class match in January 2020.
India T20I squad for Ireland and England
Shreyas Iyer (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav
India A four-day squad for Sri Lanka
Dhruv Jurel (capt & wk), B Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harsh Dubey, Saransh Jain, Gurnoor Brar, Auqib Nabi, Yash Thakur, Anshul Kamboj, N Jadadeesan, Zeeshan Ansari, Aman Mokhade, Shaik Rasheed
