'Iyer has been seriously wronged': Manjrekar slams Agarkar's decision to pick Gill over Shreyas in Asia Cup squad

The Asia Cup 2025 squad of Team India left many baffled. While the selected roster raised many questions, none was bigger than why Shreyas Iyer was not selected. Iyer, who had an exceptional IPL 2025 and was India’s top run-getter in the ICC Champions Trophy, made a strong case for selection with his consistent performances, but the player was overlooked.

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, who remains vocal about all happenings related to Indian cricket, has questioned the call of chief selector Ajit Agarkar. According to Manjrekar, Shreyas’ non-selection comes as shocking to him, and he termed Shubman Gill’s selection in the T20Is based on how he performed in the Tests difficult to comprehend.

“It’s something that I’ve seen over the years, not recently, this tendency of selectors to pick a player on performances of one format, where that person is accepted and picking him for another format", Manjrekar conveyed through a video posted on his Instagram account_._ “When I see a player getting rewarded for his Test match performances by a player in the T20 side, I just find that devoid of cricketing logic. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

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Manjrekar recalled the time when Iyer was dropped from the side because he was not prioritising domestic cricket, but he learned a lesson from that and came back better than ever. Thus he should have been rewarded for that, according to Manjrekar.

“Shreyas not making this T20 squad of India for the Asia Cup is just shocking. Because this is a guy who was left out of the Indian game for the right reason, because they felt he wasn’t committing himself as a master of domestic cricket. But it had the desired effect on Shreyas Iyer. When he came back against England at home in a one-day series, and the way he batted, you could see that he was just batting like he’s never batted before. Didn’t put a foot wrong in that comeback series. And then carried that form into IPL cricket,” he added.

Manjrekar further argued that Iyer was a standout performer for Punjab Kings in IPL 2025, and his consistency and strike rate should have secured him selection over Shubman Gill, who has excelled in Test cricket. He questioned why selectors would choose a player who has performed well in Tests over someone who has been phenomenal in T20s for a T20I series.

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“I don’t think any batter has had that kind of form right through the IPL season. What with an average of over 50, a strike rate of over 170, plus being the game-changer in the side with the bat. And he gets rewarded with non-selection. So when you do that to a player who’s put in one of the best performances ever in the last few months in a format for which the Indian team is getting selected, and you leave it out of the format. Perhaps for a guy who has excelled in a completely different format, Test cricket. Pick a guy who’s done well in Test cricket,” said Manjrekar.

“And not just because somebody has done so well in test cricket, gets rewarded with a T20 place, especially at the cost of somebody like Shreyas Iyer. I think the selection these days of the squad and the playing 11 in Indian cricket hasn’t been great. It’s just amazing, despite the fact that India played so well in England, and there is a great possibility they might do so again in this Asia Cup. But what is wrong is wrong. And I think Iyer has been seriously wronged by the selectors,” he added.