India, May 21 -- Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting has backed his franchise captain Shreyas Iyer to lead India in the T20 format after the team moves on from Suryakumar Yadav, saying that he is at the top of his game and never been "more mature".

Suryakumar recently captained India to an unprecedented second World Cup title but his form has dipped drastically in the last 12 months and he has been far from his best even in the ongoing Indian Premier League.

"There are several contenders (for the captaincy job post Surya), but he's (Shreyas Iyer) one of the main contenders as far as I'm concerned. We saw at the start of the tournament just how good a T20 player he is and where he's at, both on and off the field right now," the Austral...