India's squad for Asia Cup 2025 was announced by selection committee head Ajit Agarkar through a press-conference on Tuiesday. The selectors definitely made some interesting calls and some of them weren't taken too kindly by fans. Such was the case with the decision of omitting Shreyas Iyer from the squad for the continental tournament.
This came as a massive surprise as not only had Shreyas played a key role in India's triumphant ICC Champions Trophy campaign earlier this year, but had also given a superb performance with the bat for the Punjab Kings in IPL 2025 and had carried the side all the way to the final. Despite his impressive form the 30-year-old wasn't only not picked in the 15-member squad, but was also not kept in the reserve list either.
Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa slammed the selectors for snubbing Shreyas from the Asia Cup squad. He highlighted how the batter played a major role in the Men in Blue's Champions Trophy triumph earlier this year and added that he deserves a place in the T20I side.
"There are around 18 T20I’s to go before India play the next T20 World Cup; not having Shreyas Iyer who was integral in helping you win the CT seems strange. But one can only hope that he gets into this side soon coz he deserves it! I hope they have communicated to him about his exclusion," Uthappa wrote on X.
Shreyas hasn't played for India in T20Is for over a year
Meanwhile, Shreyas last featured for India in the shortest format in 2023. The batter has so far made a total of 51 appearances for the Men in Blue in the shortest format, scoring 1104 runs and maintaining a fiery strike-rate of 136.12. On top of this, he also has eight half-centuries in T20Is, including the highest individual score of 74*.
India's squad for Asia Cup 2025: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.