Shreyas Iyer’s snub for the Asia Cup squad left many baffled. Iyer was in great form and scored over 600 runs in the IPL, but still failed to make the cut to the team.
The cricket pundits believed that was hard done by the selectors and deserved a spot in the squad, but the chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, said there was no place for Iyer as the other players were already performing well.
Former New Zealand cricketer Ross Taylor reacted to Iyer’s snub and said it was a sign of India’s tremendous depth in the squad. Along with Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mohammed Siraj also missed the squad.
“I haven’t seen the side yet, so can’t say. (But) When you can leave that type of quality out, you’ve got to be pretty comfortable with the depth of your squad,” Ross Taylor said to PTI.
How Shubman Gill’s Comeback Aided In Shreyas Iyer’s Snub?
While Iyer missed the Asia Cup flight, the selectors brought Shubman Gill back in the squad. Gill is being seen as a potential captain in T20Is after Suryakumar Yadav, and it helped him make a comeback to the T20I side.
Gill’s return meant that Sanju Samson was picked to play in the middle order – a place where Shreyas Iyer could have been best suited, but since Samson has done well in recent times, and also serves as a wicketkeeper, he was preferred ahead of Shreyas Iyer.
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