'Composure as a person' makes Shreyas Iyer the captain he is

Eighth over. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have it all lined up. Yuzvendra Chahal strikes. Against the run of play. Ajinkya Rahane is lbw after a 55-run stand - in a 112 chase - and… a switch flicks. Chahal keeps getting wickets, and Shreyas Iyer keeps adding fielders around the bat.

Last throw of the dice? Sniffing something others hadn't? To Ian Bishop, it could be both or neither of those things, but Shreyas has "made teams better" wherever he has gone. On the night in Mullanpur, it meant a 16-run win for Punjab Kings (PBKS), their fourth win in IPL 2025.

In that situation, with more than half the small target knocked off and many, many balls left, "I have seen captains sit back and probably say, 'let's take this as deep as we can'," Bishop said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show. "I think Shreyas is a good captain. Wherever Shreyas has gone, and I keep saying it, since he took over from Gautam Gambhir halfway through at Delhi Capitals [then Daredevils] in 2018, he's made teams better."

To Ambati Rayudu, it was a case of things falling in place for PBKS, but Shreyas did something "the best of captains" might not have.

"I have known the best of captains who wouldn't have taken this score [111] seriously. Trust me," Rayudu said. "But this guy did. [Coach Ricky] Ponting does. Ponting would never give up. That's a great combination that they have going. But only if they don't change the players as often as they do. And keep it constant. I think they'll get a lot of success in the IPL.

"He [Shreyas] has that composure as a person and as a captain, and that is why I feel… sir [Bishop] here has said he is a good captain, and that's because he has that composure."

Back in IPL 2018, the season Bishop referred to, Ponting was the Delhi coach and Gambhir the captain. Gambhir was in poor form with the bat, and Delhi had won only one of their first six matches of the season when he stepped down, and Shreyas took over. They still finished bottom of the table, but with five wins from their eight remaining games. Shreyas then led Delhi to a third-place finish in IPL 2019 and the final the following year. His next captaincy stint came with KKR, and he led them to the title in 2024.

Now with PBKS, Shreyas has led the team to four wins in six games and is also their top run-getter. Are PBKS looking set to make the playoffs at this stage then?

"They are more eager, they are more hungry. They are on their way," Rayudu said, while Bishop pointed out that, compared to some of the teams, PBKS were only playing their sixth game on Tuesday, and "had they gone the other way and lost this, it wouldn't have been detrimental, but they have given themselves a bonus".

It's not only about Shreyas, though. Ponting has played his part in the backroom, and said the KKR result "might just be about the best win that I've ever had [as a coach]". Nehal Wadhera, the PBKS middle-order batter, provided a glimpse of the "positivity" in the camp with Ponting and Shreyas working in tandem.

"I have never, ever heard a negative word coming out of his mouth," Wadhera said of Ponting at the post-match press conference. "When your coach is such a character, the way he inspires everyone, and even when we got back [after the batting innings], he just said, 'okay, today our bowlers need to get the job done, I need some really fiery spells today'; automatically when players listen to such things from the coach, the confidence boosts up. It really showed on the field. It's all because of his pep talks.

"Also Shreyas Iyer. They way he charges up everyone… he's one of the finest captains I have ever played under and he's really great at what he does, with the bat and the way he captains, and the way he is leading the team is really great."