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Last week, India's squad for five-Test series on England soil was announced. One of the notable absentees from the 18-member squad was Shreyas Iyer who has been out of the scheme of things for an year in the longest format. While the men's selection committee head Ajit Agarkar announced the team and new captain Shubman Gill, head coach Gautam Gambhir was asked "Why Iyer wasn't selected?" to which he said "Main selector nahi hu (I'm not the selector)". Former India pacer Atul Wassan had a tongue-in-cheeck response to head coach's statement in the media.
"He doesn't select, he only rejects," Wassan said on Bails and Banter show on the OTTplay.
Wassan said that the head coach has a role in team selection.
"The coach has a role in team selection, and selectors also listen to them before naming the squad," he said.
However, Wassan backed Gambhir for the squad he has selected.
"If he (Gambhir) has been given this position, then I think he deserves to go with his feeling, whether it's right or wrong," Wassan added.
Meanwhile, Iyer-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) suffered a thumping eight-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at home on May 29. PBKS will face the winner of the eliminator in Qualifier 2 on June 1. In the ongoing season, he is PBKS' second-highest run-scorer.
Iyer's run in previous Ranji season and record on England soil
In the 2024-25 season of Ranji Trophy, Iyer played five matches for Mumbai. He scored 480 runs from seven innings at an average of 68.57, including two centuries. His strike rate is 90.22. On England soil, Iyer has played three Tests and scored 138 runs from six innings at an average of 23.
India's Test squad for England tour -
Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
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