The depth of Indian cricket, particularly in the T20 format, is well-documented. While India recently won the T20 World Cup 2026 title, a plethora of talent didn’t even make the 15-man squad – Shreyas Iyer , Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal , to name a few.
Legendary India captain Sourav Ganguly stated that a second-string Indian team would also be able to beat international teams in T20I cricket. Ganguly singled out one player in particular whose non-inclusion in the Indian squad had left him “flabbergasted”.
Ganguly marvelled at India’s strength and depth in T20I cricket, stating that the fact that Shreyas Iyer fails to make it to the senior T20I squad leaves him in shock.
“India could have fielded a second T20 World Cup team. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rahul, Pant. Yashasvi doesn’t get a game. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi can walk into any team in the world,” Ganguly said, speaking on RevSportz.
“Shreyas Iyer doesn’t get a T20 game. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that he doesn’t get a spot,” he stated.
“Then you have Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna. Kuldeep Yadav doesn’t get a game. So, India can field another T20 side and still beat international teams,” he added.
Despite being a stalwart for India in ODI cricket, Iyer has not played a single T20I for India since December 2023, more than two years ago. This is despite the fact that Iyer has enjoyed two exceptional Indian Premier League (IPL) seasons in 2024 and 2025, leading his team to the final on both occasions.
In IPL 2025, Iyer registered his best-ever season, smashing 604 runs at an average of over 50 and a strike-rate of 175.07. However, even these efforts weren’t enough to get him a spot in India’s T20I team, given the settled core of the latter.
Iyer is set to lead Punjab Kings (PBKS) again in IPL 2026, with their Gujarat Titans (GT) on March 31.