“I am baffled” - Former Indian selector slams selection committee for omitting Shreyas Iyer for Asia Cup 2025

Former Indian selector Salil Ankola has stated his disappointment at the current Indian selection committee for not including Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer in the recently announced 15-man Asia Cup 2025 squad.

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Notably, the Ajit Agarkar-led Indian selection committee went ahead with Tilak Varma instead of Shreyas Iyer in the squad, which didn’t go down well with many in the cricketing fraternity, keeping the latter’s IPL 2025 form in mind.

"It’s surprising and shocking that proven performers like Iyer and (Yashasvi) Jaiswal are not in India’s Asia Cup squad while others who have just come in have found a place. I’m baffled that Shreyas hasn’t been picked even in the five-man list of reserves despite doing well in the IPL this year," Salil Ankola told Mumbai Mirror.

After announcing the Asia Cup 2025 squad, Agarkar commented that Iyer’s exclusion from the 15-man squad wasn’t due to anyone’s fault, but the middle-order batter needs to wait for his turn.

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“It’s not his fault, nor ours- it’s just that only 15 can be picked, and at the moment, he has to wait for his chances,” Agarkar told the media.

Shreyas Iyer had an exceptional IPL 2025 season, both as a captain and as a batter. While he led his PBKS franchise to the grand finale, he accumulated 604 runs from 17 innings at an average of 50.33 and a strike rate of 175.07, amassing six half-centuries. 

Interestingly, Iyer's last T20I outing came against Australia at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in December 2023.

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India’s squad for Asia Cup 2025: 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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