'Pick a guy who's done well in T20 cricket, 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.'
Shreyas Iyer’s omission from India’s squad for the Asia Cup T20 has left the cricketing world baffled, more so because the 30-year-old has been in the form of his life.
Iyer, who piled up 604 runs in 17 matches at a strike rate of 175 and an average of 50.33 in IPL 2025, also led Punjab Kings to a runners-up finish. Yet, when the selectors met, his name didn’t figure — not even among the five reserves. Instead, Shubman Gill, who has hardly featured in T20Is recently but smashed over 750 runs in the England Test series, was handed the vice-captaincy.
The decision has drawn sharp criticism from former players, with Sanjay Manjrekar leading the charge.
'It's something I've seen over the years, not just recently: this tendency of selectors to pick a player based on performances in one format, where that person excelled, and then picking him for another format. When I see a player getting rewarded for his Test match performances by being placed in the T20 side, I just find that devoid of cricketing logic. It just doesn't make any sense,' Manjrekar wrote on Instagram.
'Shreyas Iyer not making this T20 squad of India for the Asia Cup is just shocking. This is a guy who was left out of the Indian team for the right reason because they felt he wasn't committing himself as much to domestic cricket. But it had the desired effect on Shreyas Iyer: when he came back again in the at-home ODI series against England, the way he batted, you could see that he was just batting like he had never batted before.'
Pointing out that Iyer had done everything asked of him, Manjrekar questioned the logic of his non-selection.
'He didn't put a foot wrong in that comeback series and then carried that form into IPL cricket. I don't think any batter has had that kind of form throughout the IPL season, with an average over 50, a strike rate over 170, and being the game-changer in the side with the bat. And he gets rewarded with non-selection,' he remarked.
For Manjrekar, the bigger issue is what such decisions do to players who deliver consistently in the right format but are still overlooked.
'So, when you do that to a player who has put in one of the best performances ever in the last few months in a format for which the Indian team is being selected, and you leave him out of that format, that's for a guy who has excelled in a completely different format: Test cricket. Pick a guy who's done well in T20 cricket, 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,' he added.