Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary questioned head coach Gautam Gambhir after Yashasvi Jasiwal and Shreyas Iyer's omission from the Suryakumar Yadav-led side for the Asia Cup 2025. He recalled Gambhir's old clip, where he can be seen saying that Jaiswal is 'such a player that we cannot think of keeping him out of T20I'.
Iyer missed his spot despite flexing great form in the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The middle-order batter captained Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the last edition of the tournament, where he played a crucial role for the side to qualify for the title decider. Iyer scored 604 runs at an average of 50.33 and a strike rate of 170.07, including six half-centuries. Jaiswal is not in the main squad, but rather in the reserves group alongside all-rounder Washington Sundar, all-rounder Riyan Parag, pacer Prasidh Krishna and wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel.
Expressing his views on the exclusion of Iyer and Jaiswal, Tiwary said, ""Two deserving candidates, Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal, have not been able to make it to the team... If you see old videos of Gautam Gambhir, he had said that Yashasvi Jaiswal is such a player that we cannot think of keeping him out of T-20. Now that he himself is the coach, there is no place for Shreyas Iyer in the team. Shreyas Iyer's performance is the best if you look at the last year... It's eye-opening that he didn't get a place in the T20... The selection process should be made live so that sports lovers know who has been selected and why..." said Manoj Tiwary as quoted by ANI.
Asia Cup 2025 is scheduled to start from September 9, and India will start their campaign the next day against the UAE at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai. The high-voltage clash between India and Pakistan will take place on September 14 at the same venue.
India’s squad for Asia Cup: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh
Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel