Shreyas Iyer’s snub from the recently announced India squad for the Asia Cup 2025 has taken everyone by surprise. Despite scoring runs consistently in T20 cricket both domestically and in the IPL, Iyer failed to find a place in the side.
Iyer was not included in the final 15-member squad and even in the reserves for India’s Asia Cup squad. The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee picked players like Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh ahead of Iyer.
In recent times in T20 cricket, Shreyas Iyer led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their third IPL title in 2025. In 2025, he took Punjab Kings to the final in the IPL for the first time since 2014. Iyer is placed 11th in the list of highest run-getters for India in T20I cricket with 1104 runs from 51 matches, striking close to 140.
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He's A Strong Contender - Abhishek Nayar On Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas scored a half-century in his last T20I for India in 2023 against Australia. Simultaneously, he did not find a place in India’s T20 World Cup squad and but came back and went onto become India’s top-scorer in their victorious Champions Trophy campaign.
Abhishek Nayar, the former India Assistant coach and someone who has worked closely with Iyer at KKR, questioned the reason behind his absence from India’s 20-member Asia Cup squad.
"I wanted to ask that question - how is he not even in the reserves if he's such a strong contender? Sometimes, selection meetings can be quite interesting, and the discussions even more so. But I genuinely can't understand what justification there could be for not including Shreyas Iyer in a 20-member squad” Nayar said.
Nayar further predicted that the reason behind Nayar’s snub can be due to a range of factors, saying that he might not be liked in the team as much as some of the other players.
"Any selection, after a while, comes down to who you prefer a little more than the other. In that regard, maybe Shreyas Iyer is not liked as much as someone else. Maybe," he said.
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Agarkar On Iyer's Snub
Ajit Agarkar also addressed the issue regarding Iyer’s snub, saying that his omission is not due to any fault of his or the management’s, as the spots are sealed at the moment.
"With regards to Shreyas, there's no fault of his - nor is it ours. We can only pick 15, and at the moment, he might have to wait for his chance” Agarkar said.
India's Asia Cup T20 Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.
Standby Players: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal.
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