Has the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed Shreyas Iyer’s comeback to the Indian Test team after 20 months? If the latest announcement is anything to go by, one could assume that the star batter will make the squad for the upcoming two-match Test series against West Indies, which will take place from October 2 in Ahmedabad, set to host the opening game at the Narenda Modi Stadium before action moves to the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
Clashing with the series will be the India A’s three-match one-day series against Australia A. The games will take place on September 29, October 3, and October 5 at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. It can be safely assumed that any players part of that squad will be playing the Test series.
While India will only name their squad for the red-ball assignment later this month, chief selector Ajit Agarkar named the white-ball squad of India’s shadow team. The team will be captained by Rajat Patidar in the first game before Tilak Varma takes over for the next two matches. Tilak is one of four players that is part of India’s Asia Cup 2025 squad, who will play the second and third game of the ‘A’ Tour.
Shreyas Iyer Missing
While the key talking point was that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma did not make the ‘A’ squad despite being named captains of India ‘A’ against Australia ‘A’, which will take place at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow from Tuesday (16th September).
With Shreyas a mainstay of the Indian ODI team, his leading the ‘A’ side in the format would have been a no-brainer. However, the move does hint that he could find his place back in the Test team against the West Indies.
The move to make Shreyas the captain of the red-ball team after not picking him for the shadow tour of England was a hint that he is part of the scheme of things again. Shreyas last played a Test match for India in February 2024 against England at Visakhapatnam.
However, there remains a caveat that the 2025 Irani Cup is also clashing with the two series and will begin on October 1. With Shreyas leading India ‘A’ in red-ball cricket, he could also lead the Rest of India (ROI) squad. Infact, Ruturaj Gaikwad led both ROI and India ‘A’ in whites last year.
Moreover, Shreyas is a certified starter in ODIs and hence the selectors would not want to use him in an ‘A” tour and instead see younger players.
The 30-year-old is among a rare group of Indian players to score a century on Test debut. Overall, he has played 14 matches in the longest format and scored 811 runs at an average of 36.9.