“It just doesn't make any sense” - Ex-Indian cricketer slams selection committee for excluding Shreyas Iyer for Asia Cup

Former Indian batter and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has expressed his shock at not seeing Shreyas Iyer in the Indian Asia Cup 2025 squad, accusing the Indian selection committee of picking players for one format based on their performance in other formats.

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Notably, Iyer ended the IPL 2025 season as the sixth-leading run-scorer, amassing 604 runs from 17 innings at an average of 50.33 and a strike rate of 175.07 with the best score of 97* against the Gujarat Titans.

“It's something that I've seen over the years, not recently, this tendency of selectors to pick a player on performances of one format, where that person is accepted, and picking him for another format. When I see a player getting rewarded for his Test match performances by a player in the T20 side, I just find that devoid of cricketing logic. It just doesn't make any sense,” Manjrekar said in a video shared on his Instagram story.

Furthermore, Manjrekar also talked about Iyer's credentials in the ODI series against England earlier this year, when he ended as the second-leading run-scorer of the series, accumulating 181 runs from three innings at an average of 60.33.

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“Shreyas not making this T20 squad of India for the Asia Cup is just shocking. Because this is a guy who was left out of the Indian game for the right reason, because they felt he wasn't committing himself as a master of domestic cricket. But it had the desired effect on Shreyas Iyer. When he came back against England at home in a one-day series, and the way he batted, you could see that he was just batting like he's never batted before. Didn't put a foot wrong in that comeback series. And then carried that form into IPL cricket,” he added.

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.

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