Former India cricketer Parthiv Patel feels that the luck wasn't on Shreyas Iyer's side and that is why the latter ended up missing out on the Men in Blue's 15-member squad for Asia Cup. Parthiv also stated that Iyer has no choice but to patiently wait for his turn.
The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee faced a lot of criticism after they decided to not include Iyer into their squad for the continental tournament. This was due to the fact that the 30-year-old had performed brilliantly with the bat for the Punjab Kings in IPL 2025. The batter was the sixth-highest run-getter in the league with 604 runs under his name from 17 matches. He was a major reason behind the franchise reaching all the way to the final and that is why was expected to feature for India in Asia Cup.
Iyer wasn't included in the reserve list as well
Notably, not only was Iyer kept out of the squad, but was also not included in the five-member reserve list for the tournament either. There has been a lot of debate around the batter's omission from the team, but the bottom line is that he will have to wait in order to make his return to the Men in Blue's T20I set-up.
“The criticism is bound to happen whenever an Indian team is selected. Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh were selected, both left-handed batters. So, the question arises, why didn’t Shreyas Iyer find a place. But in my opinion, I feel that someone had to be unlucky," Parthiv said on his YouTube channel.
Parthiv advised Iyer to not get disheartened with his exclusion from the squad and asked him to wait patiently for his chance.
“When you are playing cricket, you want the luck to favour you at times, as it makes a big difference. I feel Shreyas Iyer needs to do just one thing: he just has to wait and have some patience," Parthiv stated.
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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 come to a conclusion with the match against Oman on September 19. The Men in Blue head into the competition as the favourites and will be aiming to win a record ninth Asia Cup title in their history.