Punjab Kings batter Nehal Wadhera showered praise on Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy after the recently concluded ODI series against Australia. Iyer has impressed with his leadership in the IPL and has done a fine job.
The Mumbai batter took Punjab Kings to IPL 2025 final but they could not cross the last hurdle against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Earlier, Iyer took Kolkata Knight Riders to IPL 2024 glory and took Delhi Capitals to the final in IPL 2020.
Nehal Wadhera said on Taruwar Kohli YouTube Channel, “If Ricky Ponting is saying that currently, India’s best captain is Shreyas, then there is some sort of [special] thing in him. Personally, I also felt that he is one of the finest captains.”
“As a captain, you should forget that while you are batting. I think it fits into his thought. I saw players who start taking time after becoming captains instead of going for fours straightaway. When you try to do something which you haven’t done before, it backfires on you at that time, but it never happened with him,” he added.
On the other hand, the former left-handed batter said Iyer backs his players to the hilt. The Punjab batter recalled the Qualifier match against Mumbai Indians when Iyer asked him to play an aggressive shot against Trent Boult when the former missed out on a full-toss.
“Shreyas Iyer also backs the player very well. For example, he knows my game. I remember that game against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Qualifier. Trent Boult bowled a full toss on the next delivery of an over, and I took a single. He told me, ‘What are you doing? Why didn’t you hit it for a six?’ I said, Iyer bhai, it was the last ball, so I took the single and we got the run.”
“He replied: ‘What are you doing? I know you can hit it, so better do it.’ I told him why to take the risk. He explained that the ball was in the slot and you would hit for a six nine out of 10 times, ‘Maar na, Bindaas khel. Mai hu yahan’ (Hit it, play it cool, I am here),” he added.
Wadhera scored 369 runs in 15 matches of IPL 2025 at a strike rate of 145.84.
