Mohammad Kaif has joined the chorus of those criticizing the BCCI for his exclusion from the Test squad for the England series. While Nair has gotten into the middle-order position once held by Iyer, Kaif is particularly unhappy with the inclusion of Sudharsan. Kaif claims Sudharsan was selected for his IPL performances. Since 2023, the left-handed batsman has matured into one of the league's best openers for Gujarat Titans. The 2025 season merely added to his streak of excellent performances. It is quite a rarity to see such consistency in T20 cricket. Sudharsan's success in white-ball cricket in the IPL went in his favor, but the very same conditions were not considered for Shreyas. Iyer was one of the front-line performers for India in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy. He was outstanding in the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and IPL. Yet, no selection came his way. Kaif shared on his YouTube channel: “Sai Sudharsan is a brilliant player, no doubt. But he was picked in the Test squad after a good IPL season (679 runs so far). Iyer, meanwhile, has been doing well for so long. He scored some 550 runs in the 2023 ODI World Cup and in the Champions Trophy as well. He is still doing a terrific job with the bat for Punjab Kings – 514 runs and counting. He is captaining too. So, on one hand, you are considering white-ball criteria for one player and not for the other.” While Kaif's claims appear somewhat plausible, Iyer's Ranji Trophy numbers 480 runs at an average of 68.57 across seven innings—seem impressive. However, the reality is that his two centuries, 142 and 233, came at the expense of rather weak teams like Maharashtra and Odisha, while in the other matches, he could muster a mere 105 runs in five innings. Also Read: PBKS vs RCB Qualifier 1 Preview - Venue, Squads & More Sudharsan would be able to boast of his double century coming against a stronger opponent like Delhi. And that's not all. Over the past nine months, he has also scored a century for India A against Australia A in an away game. He gained some good first-class experience in English conditions over two County Championship seasons for Surrey. Clearly, selection was not an IPL-only story.