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India's squad for Asia Cup 2025 was announced on Tuesday by selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar through a press-conference. The selectors made multiple bold choices which includes appointing Shubman Gill as the vice-captain despite him having not played a T20I since July, 2024. However, the main talking point was how the selectors overlooked Shreyas Iyer from not just the 15-member squa, but also the 5-member reserve list.
This was quite a surprising decision as Shreyas had had a stellar IPL 2025 campaign with the bat for the Punjab Kings (PBKS). Many former India cricketers like Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin and Kris Srikkanth questioned why the selectors left out the 30-year-old from the squad. Now, Sanjay Manjrekar has also slammed Agarkar & Co. for the same reason.
Manjrekar questioned the selectors' decision on Shreyas
“Shreyas Iyer not making this T20 squad of India for the Asia Cup is just shocking. This is a guy who was left out of the Indian team for the right reason because they felt he wasn't committing himself as much to domestic cricket. But it had the desired effect on Shreyas Iyer: when he came back again in the at-home ODI series against England, the way he batted, you could see that he was just batting like he had never batted before," Manjrekar said on Instagram.
"He didn't put a foot wrong in that comeback series and then carried that form into IPL cricket. I don't think any batter has had that kind of form throughout the IPL season, with an average over 50, a strike rate over 170, and being the game-changer in the side with the bat. And he gets rewarded with non-selection," he added.
"So, when you do that to a player who has put in one of the best performances ever in the last few months in a format for which the Indian team is being selected, and you leave him out of that format, that's for a guy who has excelled in a completely different format: Test cricket. Pick a guy who's done well in T20 cricket, and not just because somebody has done so well in Test cricket gets rewarded with a T20 place, especially at the cost of somebody like Shreyas Iyer," he further stated.
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Shreyas' snub from the Asia Cup squad means that he will continue his wait of making a comeback to India's T20I set-up. The batter last played a match in the format back in December, 2023 and there is no guarantee as to when the selectors will call him back for a T20I assignment.
Meanwhile, India will begin their Asia Cup campaign with the clash against UAE on September 10 before locking horns against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 14. Their group stage will get concluded with the match against Oman on September 19.
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