'He should be playing...': Ex-England star's blunt verdict on Shreyas Iyer's omission from Asia Cup squad

Ever since India's 15-member squad for Asia Cup 2025 was announced, Shreyas Iyer's omission from the tournament has become one of the maintalking points. Despite his stunning performance with the bat for the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in IPL 2025, the 30-year-old found no place in the squad for the continental tournament and wasn't included in the 5-member reserve list either.

Notably, Iyer had finished as the sixth-highest run-getter of IPL 2025 with a total of 604 runs under his name from 17 matches. The batter recorded six 50+ scores during the tournament and played a key role in guiding PBKS all the way to the final where they would eventually lose against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

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Former England cricketer Monty Panesar feels that one of the reasons why Iyer failed to make it to the squad for Asia Cup is because India head coach Gautam Gambhir finds it easier to manage younger players.

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"One of the reasons Shreyas Iyer is probably struggling to get into the Indian squad is because he brings those leadership skills and, at the moment, possibly they've got that covered. It gives them an opportunity to bring in someone younger, a bit more exciting to play, who would be easier to manage for coach Gautam Gambhir," Panesar said in an interview with India Today.

"I think him being the captain in IPL makes it a bit difficult for him to get into that team. But I do believe, if he keeps scoring runs, he should be playing. It's just the talent, the talent is unbelievable. I think India has never been so blessed and lucky that they can pull out probably two or three teams right now and compete against the world," he added.

India's Asia Cup schedule

Meanwhile, the Asia Cup is all set to commence from September 9. India will begin their campaign in the tournament with the clash against UAE on September 10 before locking horns against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 14. Their group stage will come to a conclusion with the match against Oman on September 19. Suryakumar Yadav & Co. will be aiming to win a record ninth Asia Cup title in the coming tournament.

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