Asia Cup 2025: Shreyas Iyer Couldn’t Have Done Much More. Could the Selectors?

Asia Cup 2025: Shreyas Iyer had answers to every question thrown his way. Now, it's his turn to demand one.

Asia Cup: Shreyas Iyer was not selected despite being a consistent performer.

(Photo: BCCI)

Death, taxes and the inevitable debates in the immediate aftermath of an Indian cricket team squad announcement.

This might seem like an exercise in futility. For decades, the selectors have defended omissions of fan favourites with the same weary justification: we can only pick so many. From Chandu Borde to MSK Prasad and Ajit Agarkar, the personalities might have changed, but the playbook has remained intact. Unscathed.

And to be fair, the argument holds weight. In a country blessed with an embarrassment of cricketing riches, a few deserving names will always be left behind — not for want of talent, but for want of space. That is, until the cricketer proves himself to be so good that the selection committee is forced to carve out space.

Did Shreyas Iyer not do enough to force the selectors’ hands?

The Justification, & the Reactions

Did Shreyas Iyer not do enough to force the selectors’ hands?

On 19 August, the BCCI announced India’s 15-member squad for the Asia Cup, reserves included. Ever since, the discourse has refused to die down — not about those who have been picked, but the one who hasn’t. Shreyas Iyer.

Unfortunately for the selectors, there has been no digression either. India will not play any match till the 10^th of September, and there are no jarring updates to focus on. No stray dogs to save ECI, that is.

Agarkar justified Iyer’s omission with the oldest trick in the book.

With regards to Shreyas, we'll have to tell you who he can replace. Again, no fault of his, nor is it ours. It's just that we can only pick 15 and at the moment he will have to wait for his chance.

Ajit Agarkar

Criticism, though, was smooth.

Abhishek Nayar, former assistant coach of the Indian team, who has worked with Iyer in Kolkata Knight Riders as well, shed light on the human aspect of picking a squad. Be it the Indian team or that of your neighbour, selection always comes down to personal preference.

I wanted to ask one question — why is Shreyas Iyer not a part of your reserves if he is such a strong contender? Sometimes, selection meetings can be quite interesting, and the discussions that happen in them can be very interesting. But I can't fathom, and I don't understand, what reason can justify Shreyas Iyer not being part of that 20-member squad. I'm not even talking about the 15, I'm talking about the 20-member squad, which sends a message to Shreyas Iyer that he is not in the team's scheme of things. Because even if things don't work out, he is still not coming into the team. Either Riyan Parag is going to make the cut, or someone else is. So, the big question here is that maybe they are not looking at him from a T20 point of view — or perhaps any other point of view. But I always say this that any selection after a while is, 'who you like a little more than the other'. In that regard, maybe Shreyas Iyer is not liked as much as someone else.

Abhishek Nayar, on JioHotstar

Aakash Chopra and Krishnamachary Srikkanth spoke in the same vein.

What more will Shreyas Iyer have to do? What more can you do than what you have already done? You had a 600-plus run IPL season, took the team to the final, scored runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, played Ranji, and won the Champions Trophy. That’s all you can do as a human being.

Aakash Chopra

For a player who has performed so well, you are saying: ‘tell me who he will replace in the side’. I cannot understand this statement. It’s a nonsensical statement from Agarkar. Totally nonsensical. I don’t agree with him.

Krishnamachari Srikkanth

Why Shreyas Iyer Warranted Selection

Prima facie, the critics are right. His numbers demanded selection.

In IPL 2025, Iyer was the sixth-highest run-scorer with 604 runs. More tellingly, he struck them at 175.07. No other Indian crossed 500 runs at a rate beyond 175. In fact, across the tournament’s history, only three batters have ever managed a 600-plus season at such velocity

Prior to the IPL was the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, wherein he accumulated 345 runs, and became the fourth-highest run-scorer of the tournament. Following a similar pattern, though, the focus should be on his strike rate here as well — 188.52. He was among the only three batters to score over 300 runs at a strike rate of over 180.

Why is this important?

Because for years, Iyer’s T20I prospects were curbed by one critique: his scoring speed. In the 51 T20Is he has played for the Indian team, he has scored 1104 runs at a strike rate of 136.12.

Let it be factored in that Iyer has not been given any opportunities in this format since December 2023, whilst he has had a significant improvement in his strike rate and weaknesses — most notably being the extensively documented Achilles’ heel against short deliveries — since early last year.

What do numbers portray in this regard?

Till 2023, Iyer had played 150 T20 matches across all competitions — for India, Mumbai, or his IPL franchises. In those matches, he had scored 3,137 runs at a strike rate of 128.5.

Since then, he has featured in 34 T20 matches, and has scored runs at a strike rate of 162.7.

Iyer Couldn't Have Done Much More

To call his earlier exclusions unjust would be revisionist.

On the occasions he was dropped from the Indian squad, his numbers did very little to frame a robust, impregnable counter narrative.

Iyer did not play any T20Is in 2018 after his debut in 2017, as his highest score in his first six innings was 30. Since then, he has been in and out of India’s T20I plans. There was one particular series which might have changed that — against Sri Lanka in February 2022, where he struck three consecutive centuries — but a wretched run of form in the following months, coupled with injury troubles, shunned any possibility of an extended stay. And like that, it has been nearly two years since we have seen Iyer playing T20 cricket for India.

His absence from India’s T20 setup has not been inexplicable on most occasions. Now, though, it certainly is. This is a different Iyer. One whose average climbs, strike rate soars, dot-ball percentage shrinks. One who has, quite simply, done everything asked of him.

Beyond the bat, his leadership credentials glisten. He led Kolkata Knight Riders to their first trophy in a decade in IPL 2024, and then followed it up by taking Punjab Kings to their first final in a decade. That is not all, however, as he also won Mumbai their second Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Meanwhile, with Suryakumar Yadav’s form dipping under the burden of captaincy and India in need of a capable deputy, Iyer seemed the natural choice. Instead, the selectors plumped for Shubman Gill, who has not been a regular in the T20 setup either.

The chatter will not matter, should India win their ninth Asia Cup. And in all probability, they perhaps will, barring any surprises. The celebration will always drown the noise.

For now, the question, though, will continue linger — what more could Shreyas Iyer possibly have done?