The reason for Iyer’s omission was not spelt out by the chief selector in the media conference held last week in Mumbai. When asked, Agarkar reportedly counter-questioned the media by asking them to name who could have been dropped to accommodate Iyer
Shreyas Iyer. Pic/AFP
The exclusion of Shreyas Iyer, the Mumbai batsman, who has been left out of India’s T20 squad for the Asia Cup, has provided cricket lovers yet another chance to have a go at the national selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar.
The reason for Iyer’s omission was not spelt out by the chief selector in the media conference held last week in Mumbai. When asked, Agarkar reportedly counter-questioned the media by asking them to name who could have been dropped to accommodate Iyer. It was not the best way to deal with an issue which would inevitably become a talking point. Selecting a national team in any format is an unenviable task. It’s all the more confronting and challenging when it comes to picking an India T20 team, considering the surfeit of talent available on these shores in this particular format. India is in a happy situation where the bench strength is so enormous that it makes the selectors’ job even tougher.
That said, the selectors have chosen to ignore performances by players in their very own tournament— the Indian Premier League. Iyer scored 604 runs in 17 IPL-2025 games at an average of 50.33. B Sai Sudharsan, who was on the recent Test tour of England, smashed 759 runs in 15 IPL-2025 games. He, too, finds himself missing in the Asia Cup roster. Ditto pace bowler Prasidh Krishna, who claimed the most wickets in the tournament — 25 in 15 matches for an IPL Purple Cap honour. Krishna is instead in the standby group just like batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal.
The selectors may end up being proved right with India going on to win the tournament, which will be played in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. But these are indeed remarkable pieces of omission even in a you-can’t-please-everyone scenario.
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