No Shreyas Iyer in the 2025 Asia Cup: a very shocking headline that has elicited many comments of disbelief from the former Indians. The BCCI chief selector, Ajit Agarkar, announced a 15-man squad for the 2025 Asia Cup, with the T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav by his side. And to many people's disbelief, Iyer was nowhere. Where did Shreyas Iyer do wrong? As Akash Chopra pointed out while speaking to JioHotstar, these T20I selections are done on the basis of IPL performances. Shreyas was nothing short in that category, too. In the 2025 IPL, he not only led the Punjab Kings to the final but also scored 604 runs. Initially, he came at three, and they promoted Jos Inglish to that position, and he started coming at 2-down. Shreyas was the 6th highest scorer of the tournament, had six half-centuries, and was one of the six rare batters in the tournament who managed 400 runs with a strike rate of above 170! Shreyas Iyer is hanging in the team despite consistency The post-contract snub Shreyas Iyer has been getting a lot of public "recognition" a lot. But this man had 526 runs, one of the stable middle-order run scorers. He was one of those guys who played relentlessly, played the white ball series, played the England Test series at home, and was sent back halfway to play the Ranji Trophy. A revSports report had said that Iyer was taking painkiller injections during the World Cup, but was denied a break afterward. One denial for a Ranji Trophy match threw him out of the Central Contract! For a year, he was nowhere in international cricket. He was asked to play domestic cricket, and he won the Irani Cup and, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He even won the 2024 IPL trophy for KKR, having Gambhir as the mentor. And the rift started thereafter. Read also: Will be in the leadership group: Irfan Pathan backs axed cricketer The battle of recognition Shreyas Iyer, as he revealed in a PBKS podcast, was already having words with his former team, the Delhi Capitals, and his present team Punjab Kings. And PBKS got him for a whopping price of INR 26.75. That Shreyas was contacted towards the end was sent behind the screen, but a statement given to the Times of India became a headache. he had said, "The major focus was to win the IPL, and thankfully, I won it. I personally felt I didn't get the recognition I wanted to after winning the IPL but at the end of the day, as long as you have self-integrity and you keep doing the right things when no one is watching, that is more important and that is what I kept doing." He further said, "When I talk about recognition, it's about getting that respect. It was about the respect for whatever efforts I put on the field. I think sometimes it gets unnoticed but extremely satisfied with the efforts I put in because they weren't easy wickets to bat on." The statement came after he had already won the 2025 Champions Trophy as India's highest run-scorer (243). Read also: ICC Bans Sri Lankan Cricketer Saliya Saman for 5 Years Over Fixing The pre-Champions Trophy confusion After the contract snub, Shreyas' first International call was the three-match home ODI series against England. He scored 181 runs for India in the series. The first 59 runs that came in Nagpur were due to Virat's injury. Shreyas later candidly informed the presenters that he was informed late at night that he would play the match. Even several reports from RevSports suggested that Shreyas Iyer was not the first choice for the Champions Trophy. The captain, Rohit Sharma, had a three-hour-long discussion with the coach, Gautam Gambhir, forcing the latter to let Shreyas in. Boxes ticked, but "no-room" drama continued During the squad selection of the 2025 five-match Test series in England, when Shreyas Iyer was left out, questions arose. Sai Sudharshan and Karun Nair were picked ahead of Iyer as the middle-order resistance. Explaining Karun's presence, Agarkar reflected on his performance with Vidarbha and also wanted experience in the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Shreyas, on the other hand, had 480 runs in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy, maintaining an average of 68.57 in seven innings. His last Test for India was at Vishakapatnam in 2024. He has 811 runs in 14 Tests at an average of 36.86, packed with a ton and five half-centuries. Speaking about Shreyas, Agarkar said, “Yes, Shreyas Iyer has played well in domestic cricket, but at the moment, there is no room for him in the Test Team.” Shreyas had an issue with the short ball. He corrected it, developed his backfoot game, and started getting runs with his pulls. He evolved his technique, ticked all the boxes in IPL, and still got to hear the same before the Asia Cup, "It’s unfortunate that Shreyas Iyer misses out. It’s no fault of his, nor ours. He has to wait for his chance.” Notably, Karun Nair scored 205 runs in 8 innings, averaging 25.62, and having one half-century. Sai Sudharsan scored 140 runs in 6 innings with an average of 23.33, including one fifty. Is Shreyas Iyer really in the setup? In defense of Shreyas Iyer's omission, a very natural question can be asked: who will he replace? Well, Shubman Gill was nowhere, and the entire top-order batting was destabilized just to fit him. Now that he is the vice captain, either of Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Tilak Verma or Suryakumar Yadav has to compromise their sport. Reports are even suggesting that Gill will be replacing Samson in the opening slot, even though Agarkar said that the XI will be decided as per the match. However, Agarkar also said that both Abhishek and Samson were playing because neither Gill nor Yashasvi Jaiswal was available. And now that Abhishek has exceeded expectations and can bowl a bit, Jaiswal has been dragged to the standbys. And this entire setup almost rubbished Sanju Samson's recent claim that Gambhir won't drop him unless he gets 21 ducks! Now, among all the confusion, the question is, is Shreyas Iyer really in the T20 plans? Iyer's former Mumbai teammate and India's former assistant coach Abhishek Nayar was shocked to see the squad, especially not having Iyer in the standby at all. Speaking to JioHotstar, Nayar said, “I don’t know, actually, I wanted to ask that question — aapke reserve players mein kaise nahi hai woh (How is he not even in your reserve players) if he is such a strong contender. Sometimes, you know, selection meetings can be quite interesting, and the discussions that happen in them can be very interesting. But I can’t fathom, and I don’t understand, what reason can justify Shreyas Iyer not being part of that 20-member squad. I’m not even talking about the 15, I’m talking about the 20-member squad, which sends a message to Shreyas Iyer that he is not in the team’s scheme of things." Nayar further added: “Because even if things don’t work out, he is still not coming into the team. Either Riyan Parag is going to make the cut, or someone else is. So, the big question here is that maybe they are not looking at him from a T20 point of view — or perhaps any other point of view. But I always say this that any selection after a while is, ‘who you like a little more than the other’. In that regard, maybe Shreyas Iyer is not liked as much as someone else. Maybe.” Well, India has three wicketkeepers travelling: Samson and Jitesh Sharma in the main 15-member squad and Dhrub Jurel in the standby. But there is still no space for Shreyas Iyer!