Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer will be under focus when Punjab Kings host Gujarat Titans in the fourth match of the IPL 2026 in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh, on Tuesday, March 31. Both teams will look to kick off their campaigns on a positive note, but it will be more than just a winning start for captains Gill and Iyer.
Shubman Gill, India's Test and ODI captain and a consistent performer in the Indian Premier League, recently stated that he has nothing to prove, but deep inside he must be burning with a desire to get back into India's T20I squad. The same goes for Shreyas Iyer; he has nothing to prove, having led KKR to IPL glory in 2024 and PBKS to the final last year, but is still fighting a battle to get into India's T20I team.
Now, once again, both batters are leading IPL teams in 2026 and will be looking to do something special to seal their spot in India's T20I squad. As history suggests, winning the IPL trophy is not enough, so what else do they need to do to impress the BCCI's selection committee and head coach Gautam Gambhir?
One last audition for Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer?
Shubman Gill scored 650 runs at a strike rate of 155.87 in the IPL 2025 and was among the top five leading runscorers. He returned to India's T20I squad for the Asia Cup and failed to impress with just 127 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 151.19. He was average in a five-match T20I series in Australia and later struggled for consistency at home against South Africa.
The BBCI finally ran out of patience and brought in his buddy Ishan Kishan in his place for the India T20 World Cup squad. So, Gill was responsible for his own downfall in T20I cricket despite his consistent form in the IPL. So, is there any chance for his return to India's T20I squad for the T20 World Cup and Olympic Games in 2028? Quite frankly, big no.
Shubman Gill scored 890 runs in IPL 2023 and was snubbed for India's squad for the T20 World Cup in 2024; he was the fourth-highest leading run-getter in 2025 but again was not in the World Cup squad in 2026. Despite playing in the IPL for over eight years, his strike rate is below 140, a below-par standard for an opener in ever-evolving T20 cricket.
So, Shubman Gill needs to deliver another high-scoring campaign and also develop an aggressive and fearless style of play to gain the BCCI's attention once again. It may not be enough, considering the competition for the opening spots in India's T20I squad, but also considering Gill's growing stature as India's poster boy, it can do the trick.
So, let's talk about Shreyas Iyer. He was tipped to be a T20I regular after scoring 604 runs at a strike rate of 175.07 in the IPL 2025. Unlike Shubman Gill, he led his team to the final, showing his leadership skills, but once again it was not enough to make the T20I team for the Asia Cup and later the World Cup.
Iyer last played a T20I cricket match in December 2023, when he scored a match-winning fifty in his last match. Since then, the management preferred Rishabh Pant in the middle order at the T20 World Cup 2024 and later moved to Tilak Varma in 2026. Tilak had a poor IPL 2025 campaign, where he scored just 343 runs at 138.30 but has cemented his spot in India's T20I squad.
Tilak Varma's injury before the New Zealand series opened a T20I door for Iyer earlier this season. But the management went with Ishan Kishan at No. 3, a move that proved highly successful in the T20 World Cup. Iyer witnessed a five-match T20I series from the bench as the likes of Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube were preferred in the middle order on a few occasions. As a result, Iyer was overlooked for the World Cup squad.
Shreyas Iyer's case is totally different from Shubman Gill's, as the latter got more than enough chances to prove himself in T20Is. But Iyer's absence from the Asia Cup and World Cup squads raised eyebrows.
Now with the rotation policy for the middle order in place, Shreyas Iyer will bid for a spot in India's T20I squad. IPL has always been the biggest stage to audition for India's T20I team. But it is also a platform for the young players to get more attention and hyper over senior and established stalwarts like Iyer and Gill.
India's T20I team was in a transition period after the 2024 World Cup, but now the team looks settled. The management is unlikely to make major changes to their 2026 T20 World Cup-winning setup. However, for Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, a minimum of 14 IPL matches in the next two months will be 14 chances to stay in the fight and audition for the T20I return.
