Shreyas Iyer’s exclusion from India’s Asia Cup 2025 squad has been one of the biggest talking points since the 15-man squad was announced on August 19. BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar, in the presence of T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, announced in Mumbai.
When explaining the decision, Agarkar highlighted the difficulties of picking a T20I team from a large skill pool. He asked whose expense Iyer could be included in the final 15.
“With regard to Shreyas, who can he replace? No fault of his, nor is it ours. At the moment, you can only pick 15,” Agarkar said.
However, the contentious point was that Shreyas Iyer wasn’t even picked in the reserves for the Asia Cup.
Ajit Agarkar has now come under fire from former India captain Kris Srikkanth for leaving Shreyas Iyer out of India's 2025 Asia Cup roster.
Srikkanth claimed he was unable to understand Agarkar's justification for excluding Iyer from the 15-man roster for the continental event, which gets underway in the United Arab Emirates on September 9.
“On current form, Shreyas Iyer is an automatic choice. Let’s be very clear. You need to look at recent matches; there’s no point judging a player by form from a year ago. He scored 600 runs in the IPL at a strike rate of 175. Strike rate is the most important factor here. He has been brilliant. Yet you have left him out. You’ve confused him now,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
Iyer last played for India in a T20I in 2023 against Australia. Overall, he has more than 1100 runs in 51 T20Is for India.
Recently, Iyer had scored 604 runs for Punjab Kings in IPL 2025, taking them into the final of the tournament. His runs came at a strike rate of 176.
Srikkanth maintained that Iyer's IPL form was noticeably superior and that he should have been chosen over players like Rinku Singh or Shivam Dube.
Sanju Samson's lacklustre performance in the IPL 2025 and the five-match T20I series against England earlier this year raised more concerns about his inclusion, according to Srikkanth. In the IPL, Samson only scored 285 runs at a strike rate of 140.
“You can accommodate Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, and Sanju Samson, but there’s no place for Shreyas Iyer. What is this statement? I cannot understand the logic behind this. There’s no logic at all,” Srikkanth said.
He further expressed surprise at the exclusion of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
“See, Yashasvi Jaiswal is performing in international cricket; he is performing in the IPL. What wrong did he do? How can you leave him out?” he asked.
Jaiswal failed to find a spot in the India squad despite 559 runs in IPL 2025 for RR at a strike rate of nearly 160. India will open their Asia Cup T20 campaign against the United Arab Emirates in Dubai on 10 September.
