 "Gautam Gambhir shoots down question on Shreyas Iyer's exclusion from England Tests: 'I am not a selector'")
Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir ducked a metaphorical bouncer on Wednesday after being quizzed on Shreyas Iyer’s exclusion from the upcoming five-match Test series in England that gets underway next month.
The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee had unveiled India's squad for the upcoming tour of England , in which the first Test begins on 20 June in Headingley, on Saturday, with Shubman Gill being confirmed as the new Test captain and Rishabh Pant his deputy.
While the selectors included a handful of players yet to make a Test appearance, including top-order batters Sai Sudharsan and Abhimanyu Easwaran as well as left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, the absence of senior players Shreyas Iyer and Mohammed Shami as well as rising star Sarfaraz Khan raised eyebrows.
Iyer, in particular is in excellent form at the moment and is also a successful leader. And with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli having retired from Test cricket earlier this month, the Mumbaikar’s presence would have been helpful for Gill, who had begun captaining Gujarat Titans in the IPL only last year.
Gambhir refuses to answer question on Iyer’s exclusion
Gambhir, however, avoided the question on Iyer’s exclusion with a terse answer. “I am not a selector,” the former India opener said in response to the question while speaking to a gathering of reporters on Wednesday.
Chief selector Agarkar had earlier explained that while Iyer has been in excellent ODI form and has also had a solid domestic run, there simply wasn’t “room in Test cricket” for him.
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More Shorts“Shreyas had a good one-day series, played well in domestic as well, but right now there’s no room in Test cricket,” Agarkar had said during the press conference in Mumbai in which he unveiled India’s squad.
Iyer has made 14 Test appearances for India since making his debut against New Zealand in Kanpur in November 2021. He had made his last appearance in the format during the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam in February last year, with the selectors opting to axe him for the remaining three Tests after he collected 104 runs in four outings in the first two.
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