Gautam Gambhir breaks silence on Shreyas Iyer's exclusion from India's Test squad against England

Head coach Gautam Gambhir responded to Shreyas Iyer's exclusion from the Indian squad for the England tour and lauded the Board of Control for Cricket in India for inviting the chiefs of the country's armed forces to attend the IPL final on June 3 in Ahmedabad.

Iyer who is in the form of his life and performed brilliantly in domestic cricket, was unable to find his the squad for the five-match Test series against England, starting June 20 in Leeds.

"I am not a selector," was Gambhir's terse reply when he was about Iyer, who has led Punjab Kings to the IPL play-offs.

Gambhir also praised the Indian cricket board for inviting the three chiefs of armed forces to attend the IPL title clash, saying,"It's an unbelievable step".

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"We normally criticise the BCCI a lot on a lot of things, but this is something which is unbelievable. BCCI has taken an initiative from the point of view that the entire nation is one and the entire nation has to salute the armed forces for what they do unconditionally," he said.

"So I feel that with the BCCI taking such an initiative we have got to give a lot of credit to the BCCI and more importantly to our armed forces who have been unconditionally helping and saving us and protecting us."

General Upendra Dwivedi is the Chief of Army Staff, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi is the Naval Chief and Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh is the Chief of Air Staff.

Young India batter Shubman Gill will lead India in the upcoming five-Test match series against England, and this will be the team's first red-ball assignment after a 3-1 humiliating defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.

India squad for England series

Shubman Gill(C), Rishabh Pant(vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Parishdh Krishna, Akashdeep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.