When the Chetan Sharma-led selection committee announced India’s 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup 2022, they also picked four players in the standby list namely Mohammad Shami, Deepak Chahar, Shreyas Iyer, and Ravi Bishnoi.

While Shami also departed for Australia on Wednesday (October 12) to join the rest of the Indian squad, Chahar has reportedly been ruled out of the marquee event with a stiff back.

Besides Shami, Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj also travelled to Australia as fast-bowling options after Jasprit Bumrah got ruled out of the showpiece tournament.

In a surprise development, however, Shreyas and Bishnoi have been asked to stay back in India and play in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament for their domestic teams.

Notably, Iyer was in terrific form in the recently-concluded three-match ODI series against South Africa, returning with scores of 50, 113* and 28*.

"Shreyas has been told that Deepak Hooda is fit, so he would only be called if any specialist batter gets injured. He has been asked to play Mushtaq Ali trophy and remain ready," a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying by PTI.

Shreyas Iyer was in contention for a spot in India’s T20 World Cup squad at the start of this year but Suryakumar Yadav’s scintillating performances and Deepak Hooda’s impressed all-round display pushed him down in the pecking order and was only considered in the standby list.

Iyer has played 47 T20Is for India, scoring 1030 runs at an average of 32.18 and a strike rate of 136.06 with seven half-centuries.

(With PTI inputs)