Shreyas

Iyer

Shreyas Iyer Biography and Career

Shreyas Iyer’s story is one of incredible grit, determination, patience, and the unwavering will to reach the top. Born in Mumbai, Iyer showed early promise. At age 11, his father took him to the famous Shivaji Park Gymkhana, where the who’s who of Indian cricket have played.

The three coaches there at the time, Pravin Amre, Padmakar Shivalkar and Sandesh Kawle saw him bat and immediately noticed the potential. The only problem was that Iyer was late. The 25-member batch was already locked in by the trio. So, he was asked to wait which he readily did and the following year was selected right away. Under the close monitoring of the three coaches, Iyer made rapid progress.

He rose through the ranks in Mumbai cricket and while he wasn’t always the best player in the team, he was always consistent. In 2014, Iyer was part of the India Under-19 side where he hit back-to-back fifties to help India finish fifth in the tournament. 

Iyer made his first-class debut for Mumbai the following year and after a lukewarm start finished as the team’s highest run-getter. In the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season, Iyer amassed 1321 runs at an average of 73.39. He finished the season as the highest run scorer and soon calls to include him in the senior side started making the rounds.

Another significant milestone in Iyer’s life was in 2015 when Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) picked him up for an eye-popping Rs 2.6 crore. He repaid the team’s faith by scoring 439 runs in his debut season and also won the Emerging Player of the Year Award that year.

Iyer became the mainstay of the Delhi team for the next six years, scoring over 400 runs in a season four times. He was also handed the captaincy of the side. In 2019, Iyer led Delhi to the playoffs for the first time in six years and in 2020, under Iyer’s leadership, Iyer made it to the IPL final for the first time in history. 

Iyer made his T20I debut in November 2017 and a little over a month later, made his ODI debut. It took him four more years to make his Test debut, but he immediately proved his worth making a century and a fifty in his first outing. Iyer wasn’t part of the 2019 ODI World Cup squad but made it to the 2023 squad and was an integral part of the playing XI as India made it to the final. Iyer finished the tournament as India’s third-highest run getter with 530 runs in 11 matches with three fifties and two hundreds.

In 2021, Iyer was forced to miss the first part of IPL 2021 due to a shoulder injury. When he returned for the second half of the season, Delhi decided to continue with Rishabh Pant as captain for the rest of the season. Iyer left Delhi at the end of the 2021 season and was picked by KKR ahead of the 2022 edition of the IPL.

He missed IPL 2023 with a back injury but returned to lead KKR in 2024. It turned out to be a masterstroke from the management, as Iyer captained KKR to their first IPL title in ten years. KKR had a phenomenal season, dominated the points table from the start to the end, qualified for the final without much fuss, and then brushed aside Sunrisers Hyderabad in a one-sided final.

Iyer, however, wanted to go into the auction pool ahead of IPL 2025. It was a decision taken in the best of his interests. As expected, Iyer fetched big money and was finally picked by Punjab Kings for a whopping 26.75 crore, the second-highest ever in the history of the IPL, only behind Rishabh Pant’s 27 crore. Iyer will captain Punjab in the IPL 2025.

While Iyer has maintained good form, he has been plagued by injuries in recent times and has to miss a chunk of games. In January 2023, he complained of back pain and missed the New Zealand series. He went to England for back surgery and missed a number of matches but made a strong comeback in the ODI World Cup 2023.

Beyond Cricket

Iyer has plenty of fan following all across the cricketing world and is also quite active on social media. He has 11.6 million followers on his Instagram handle which goes by shreyas iyer 96 and 2.6 million followers on X (formerly Twitter).

Iyer is also a very marketable athlete and endorses a number of very popular brands such as CEAT, BoAt, Google Pixel, Manyavar, Dream11 and Myprotein among others.  

However, he has also had his share of controversies. In February 2024, the BCCI asked Iyer to participate in the Ranji Trophy 2023-24 season due to his below-par performances in the preceding red-ball season. Iyer, however, didn't turn out for Mumbai's quarter-final game against Baroda because of a back issue. There was a lack of communication between Iyer and BCCI, which led to his removal from the 2024 BCCI central contract list. After ironing out their issues, Iyer got his contract back.

In 2015, Iyer won the Emerging Player of the Year award presented to him by the BCCI. He has also won plenty of awards from the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).

Shreyas Iyer Records 

Shreyas Iyer Domestic Records

• Highest run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy 2015-16 season with 1321 runs
• Highest run-scorer for Mumbai in his debut Ranji Trophy season

Shreyas Iyer Test Records

• Became the first Indian to score a century and a half-century in his debut Test against New Zealand

Shreyas Iyer T20I Records

• In 2022, Iyer broke Virat Kohli's record for most runs scored by an Indian batsman in a three-match bilateral T20I series, scoring 204 runs with three consecutive fifties.

Shreyas Iyer ODI Records

• Was India’s third highest run-scorer in the 2023 ODI World Cup with 530 runs in 11 matches

Shreyas Iyer IPL Records

• Emerging player of the year: Won the award in 2015 after his breakthrough performance for Delhi Daredevils
• Delhi captain: Was the Delhi captain that qualified for the IPL final for the very first time in 2020
• IPL-winning captain: Took KKR to their third IPL title when he captained the side in 2024
• Second-most expensive buy: Iyer was picked up for a mind-boggling Rs 26.75 crore by Punjab Kings ahead of the IPL 2025 auction, the second-most expensive buy in the history of the tournament 
• PBKS captain: Was named captain of the Punjab Kings side ahead of the IPL 2025 season