The non-selection puzzle of Shreyas Iyer!

Shreyas Iyer has not found a place in the men in blue Twenty20 team for the eight-nation Asia Cup in Dubai, set to start on September 9. The Mumbai right-hander was imagined to be a shoo in for the Continental event that is held biennially and one that keeps the legion of fans in the sub-continent interested - mainly because of the India -Pakistan clash, at least twice in the tournament.

Iyer - a prolific run-getter in India’s domestic tournaments, including in the IPL2025 - must have hoped for a recall after a gap of nineteen months into the shortest format of the game. But the selection committee with Ajit Agarkar in the chair, could not fit him in the 15-member squad and also in the five-man reserve group. Needless to say, Iyer must be disappointed and so would be his fans.

Younger players are trying to make a breakthrough and Iyer, who will turn 31 on December 6, will see more talent staking claim for the middle order spots. But according to Agarkar, nothing is cast in stone and another twenty odd matches are lined up before next year’s home Twenty20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. Iyer can only twiddle his thumb now and hope to get in for the white ball series in Australia into October involving three one-day internationals and as many Twenty20 internationals.

The selection committee and the team management in which Head Coach Gautam Gambhir’s opinion is given weightage, did not want to disturb the combination that has played 33 matches after Iyer’s last match for India against Australia in December 2023. India has won 29 of those including the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies.

India has fielded 35 players in the shortest format since December 4,2024 and Iyer has not been part of the team. And the selection committee has simply followed the norm of placing faith in the players who have delivered in the last nineteen months. The likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja have retired from the format and yet, Iyer has not been successful to get the selection committee’s nod.

Iyer would have been fit for No. 5 in the batting order but the spot has been occupied by the likes of Hardik Pandya (21 matches), Rinku Singh (23 matches) and Shivam Dube (17 matches). Pandya and Dube are among the top six successful batters from the cut off period of January 2024.

Iyer has scored 961 runs in 39 Twenty20 internationals (530 at No.3, 155 at No.4 and 154 at No. 4), but in Dubai the top four are likely to be Abhisek Sharma (535 runs in 17 matches), Shubman Gill (278 in 10) Suryakumar Yadav (613 in 25) and Tilak Varma (468 in 12). Rinku Singh - used as a floater between batting order 4 to 7 has scored 366 off 243 balls in 23 matches and Sanju Samson ( 487 in 18) and one can see the reason why the selection committee has stuck to the team that has delivered.

The outcome in Dubai will give a chance for the selection committee to mull over and make changes for the three match series in Australia and Iyer who is a certainty for the ODI series there, may be in the Twenty20 team too. After the selection committee meeting in Mumbai, Agarkar shrugged off saying it’s neither Iyer nor the selection committee’s fault that the Punjab Kings batter is not in the squad and that he has to wait.

When it comes to Twenty20 team selection, the selectors find the basket brimming with talent with the likes of Abhishek Sharma, Samson and Tilak Varma demonstrating an attitude and approach that stunned a brilliant fast bowler like England’s Jofra Archer in the five match series at home early this year. These batters went on a leather hunt straightaway and paved the way for 270 plus scores.

The selection committee may not get many opportunities to tinker with the team for matches leading to the World Cup. But the Asia Cup will give them a first chance to find out if the borderline cases can be given the long rope.

Not only has Iyer been left out, but even an allrounder like Washington Sundar, left-handers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan, and fast bowler Prasidh Krishna; all of them are talented and shown results and they may still be part of the World Cup scheme of things, but Iyer’s case appears to be intriguing… he is not even a standby for the Asia Cup. He needs plenty of luck to win the selection committee’s nod!