Why Was Shreyas Iyer Left Out of Asia Cup 2025 Squad? Selector Ajit Agarkar Reveals Reason Behind His Snub (Image Credit - X)
The exclusion of Shreyas Iyer in the Indian team squad to the Asia Cup 2025 is one of the most talked about topics after the announcement at Mumbai. Ajit Agarkar, assisted by skipper Suryakumar Yadav, made the final decision on the 15-member team on Tuesday at the selection meeting.
Post the meeting, chief selector Ajit Agarkar had earlier told the media that Iyer was not chosen on the basis of form or discipline. Rather, it boiled down to the few positions in the team.
“Shreyas Iyer. No fault of his. He has just had to wait for his chance. You have to tell me, who you will replace him with?” Agarkar remarked.
The chief selector continued, “It’s just that you can pick 15 and at the moment, he’ll have to wait for his chance.” The balance of the middle order went against Iyer this time despite his good performances.
The last team consists of Suryakumar Yadav as the captain, Shubman Gill as the vice-captain, Hardik Pandya, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, and Jitesh Sharma among others. Sanju Samson and Jitesh will be used as wicketkeeping options.
The real fight was in the middle-order slots in the selection. Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav were already confirmed, only a few slots were left. One was a battle to have No 3 position between Tilak Varma and Shreyas Iyer.
The recent form of Tilak was one of the reasons behind the decision. His tour of South Africa was unforgettable scoring two centuries and a total of 280 runs with a strike rate of 198.48. But his IPL performance was more humble where he scored 343 runs and averaged 31.18.
Iyer, however, showed in IPL 2025 when he was playing in Punjab Kings. He also broke the record over 600 runs at a strike rate of 175.07 also the highest in a single season since Chris Gayle in 2011 and Suryakumar in 2023. In spite of these figures, he could not find a place–either in the first team or in the reserves.
Asia Cup to be played in Dubai & Abu Dhabi between September 9-28. Asian Cricket Council has confirmed that this tournament will be played in T20I format only.
Eight teams will participate in it and they will include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, UAE, Oman, and Hong Kong. Group A has India, Pakistan, UAE and Oman whereas Group B has Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Hong Kong.
The Indian campaign will begin at the group-stage with a match against the UAE on September 10. The much anticipated match against Pakistan will take place on September 14 at Dubai and the final league game against Oman on September 19 in Abu Dhabi.
In spite of the fact that the Asia Cup is being hosted in India, the event has been relocated to neutral grounds, as a result of agreement between the BCCI and PCB. This is done so that the matches between the two rivals are not played in their respective countries.
Dubai will thus have 11 matches with Abu Dhabi having eight. The curtain-raiser is on September 9 with Afghanistan playing Hong Kong in Abu Dhabi.
The best two teams in each group will enter the Super Four stage after the group stage and this will be held between the period of September 20 to 26. The Super Four matches of India will be based on their group position. In case they top Group A, then the entire games will be played in Dubai. In case they are second, one will relocate to Abu Dhabi and the rest will stay in Dubai.
Asia Cup final will be played in Dubai on September 28, and India must be there, but not Shreyas Iyer in their team plans yet.
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