Three Teams, Three Finals: How Shreyas Iyer Became the IPL's Great Builder
Delhi in 2020, Kolkata in 2024, Punjab in 2025. No other captain has taken three different franchises to an IPL final.
Plenty of captains have won the IPL. Only one has taken three different franchises to the final. Shreyas Iyer led Delhi there in 2020, won the title with Kolkata in 2024 and dragged Punjab to within six runs of the trophy in 2025.
It is a record built on a particular skill: walking into a dressing room that has been losing, and making it believe it can win.
Delhi: a captain at 23
Iyer arrived in the IPL in 2015 with Delhi Daredevils and won the Emerging Player award in his first season. Three years later, in April 2018, Gautam Gambhir stepped down as captain in the middle of a poor season, and the job went to the 23-year-old.
Delhi, renamed Delhi Capitals in 2019, had not reached the playoffs since 2012. With Iyer as captain and Ricky Ponting as head coach, they made it in 2019, winning the Eliminator before losing to Chennai in Qualifier 2.
In 2020, in a season played entirely in the UAE, Delhi went one better and reached their first IPL final. Mumbai Indians beat them by five wickets in Dubai, but the franchise had been transformed.
A shoulder injury in March 2021 kept Iyer out of the first half of that season. Rishabh Pant took over as captain and kept the job, and at the end of the year Iyer went into the mega auction.
Kolkata: the 2024 title
Kolkata Knight Riders bought Iyer for ₹12.25 crore in 2022 and made him captain. His first season ended without a playoff place, and a back injury ruled him out of the whole of 2023.
He came back in 2024 alongside a returning Gautam Gambhir, now KKR's mentor, and the team was superb. Kolkata finished top of the league table, beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 1, then beat them again in the final in Chennai. Sunrisers, the highest-scoring team of the season, were bowled out for 113, and KKR knocked off the runs in 10.3 overs to win by eight wickets.
It was Kolkata's third title and their first in ten years. Iyer, remarkably, was released before the next auction.
Punjab: 2025 and six runs short
At the 2025 mega auction in Jeddah, Punjab Kings paid ₹26.75 crore for Iyer. For a few minutes he was the most expensive player in IPL history, until Lucknow bought Rishabh Pant for ₹27 crore.
Punjab reunited him with Ricky Ponting, his coach at Delhi, and gave him the captaincy. The result was the franchise's best season in more than a decade. Punjab finished top of the league table and, after losing Qualifier 1 to Royal Challengers Bengaluru, beat Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2 in Ahmedabad. Chasing 204, Iyer made 87 not out from 41 balls.
The final, against RCB in the same stadium, was as close as they come. RCB made 190 for 9 and Punjab finished on 184 for 7. Punjab had lost by the narrowest of margins, but Iyer, who scored more than 600 runs across the season, had now taken a third different team to an IPL final.
What makes him different
- He backs his players. Team-mates at all three franchises have spoken about the freedom he gives them to play their own way.
- He leads with the bat. His biggest innings, like the 87 not out in the 2025 Qualifier 2, have tended to come in the biggest games.
- He rebuilds fast. Delhi and Punjab had both spent years outside the top four. Delhi reached their first final in his third season in charge, and Punjab reached theirs in his first.
Only one of his three finals ended with the trophy. But in a league where most captains struggle to turn one team around, Iyer has now done it three times.
Stats in this article are correct to the end of the 2025 IPL season.
