Shreyas Iyer, the new captain of Punjab Kings, just became the seventh player in IPL history to score over 2000 runs. At 30 years old, he started his IPL career in 2015 with the Delhi Capitals (then known as Delhi Daredevils) and played there until 2021 before moving to Kolkata Knight Riders. In 2024, he took KKR to their third title, but they didn’t keep him after some talks fell through.
So far, Iyer has played 117 IPL matches and has racked up 3127 runs with a strike rate of 127.47. In 2025, he joined Punjab Kings, and right away in his first game, he showed his skills and reached that 2000-run mark. He’s in good company on that list, which includes big names like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, and David Warner.
Here’s a quick look at the top run-scoring captains:
- Virat Kohli: 4994 runs
- MS Dhoni: 4660 runs
- Rohit Sharma: 3986 runs
- Gautam Gambhir: 3518 runs
- David Warner: 3356 runs
- KL Rahul: 2691 runs
- Shreyas Iyer: 2000 runs*
Iyer is also the fourth player in IPL history to lead three different teams. Mahela Jayawardene was the first to do this, followed by Kumar Sangakkara and Steve Smith. On his debut for Punjab, Iyer scored a half-century, taking advantage of a solid start from Priyansh Arya, who scored 47 runs off 23 balls. Iyer reached his half-century in just 27 balls, finishing it off with a great six against Rashid Khan in the 14th over. That was his 28th half-century in the league.
