When last year’s IPL champion KKR did not retain Shreyas Iyer, many felt the spurn to be humiliating. For, no team in the 18-years history of the IPL has treated its winning captain so shabbily. Around that time too, Iyer’s international cricket had also hit a wall. 

His infamous shortcomings against the bouncing ball had more or less put him out of the reckoning in the Test squad. And in the shorter formats, an injury forced him out of India’s trophy-triumphing T20 squad at the World Cup in 2024.

But the mentally tough got a slender chance to get back into the ODI team through an injury to Virat Kohli (against the visiting Englishmen early this year). This fetched him a place in the Indian Champions Trophy squad.

Iyer made a strong statement of intent at Dubai. He emerged as India's top run-scorer in the competition with 243 runs in five games, including successive half-centuries against Pakistan and New Zealand in the group stage. He made 48 in the final, a pivotal knock that helped India secure the trophy on slow pitch. 

In the IPL, after the KKR strangely let go of him, the PBKS franchise got him Rs 26.75 crore — the second most expensive player in the entire auction after Rishabh Pant.

In the first match of the season, Iyer announced his new coming with a sensational 97* against Gujarat Titans. On Tuesday night, he followed it up with a composed 52* against the LSG, underlining his new-found consistency.

His captaincy has also come in for praise as he has been smart on the uptake with nifty field placing and adroit handling of the players.

If the season goes in the same vein for him, the think-tank at the KKR would be further shamed for having let him go.