'Can't fathom how...': Ex-India coach slams Ajit Agarkar & Co. for not picking Shreyas Iyer in Asia Cup squad

Former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar wasn't a fan of the selection commitee's decision of not picking Shreyas Iyer in the Asia Cup squad. The Men in Blue's 15-member squad for the continental tournament was finally announced on Tuesday by selection committee head Ajit Agarkar and Shreyas' name wasn't even present in the five-member reserve list.

The 30-year-old, who hasn't featured for the national team in the shortest format since 2023, is set to continue his wauit of making a return despite his stunning performance with the bat in IPL 2025 with Punjab Kings (PBKS). Shreyas was the captain of the franchise that ended up making it all the way to the final, but eventually lost to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Shreyas was fabulous for PBKS in IPL 2025

Shreyas finished the campaign as the side's highest run-getter with 604 runs from 17 matches. He was the sixth-highest scorer of the tournament overall and also recorded six 50+ scores with his highest individual score being 97*. It looked like the batter would get into the Indian team for future T20I assignments on the back of this brilliant performance, however that didn't end up happening.

Nayar was left surprised with Shreyas' omission from the squad and stated that there is a possibility that the selectors do not like the 30-year-old as much as they like some other players.

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"Can't fathom how Iyer misses out from a 20-member long list. (15 squad, five reserves). Maybe they aren't looking at him from a T20 prism. Any selection is about who you like a little more than another, that can be a tipping point sometimes. Maybe Iyer is not liked as someone else is, maybe," Nair said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Meanwhile, Agarkar shared that Shreyas isn't at fault for missing out on the squad and added that he will have to wait to get his chance in the playing XI for the .

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"Again no fault of his. Got to tell me who he can replace? At the moment, will have to wait for his chance," Agarkar said during the press-conference.

India's squad for Asia Cup 2025: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.