India have announced their Asia Cup squad for the tournament next month, leaving out both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer.
While Jaiswal has been picked as one of the five stand-bys for the 15-member squad, Iyer has been overlooked completely. The 2025 Asia Cup, to be played in the T20I format, will be held from September 9 to 28, with India playing their first game on September 10 against the UAE.
Jaiswal fails to find a place
Jaiswal, who has already made a record start to his Test career, has played 118 T20s, striking at 151.67. He has also played 23 T20Is, making 723 runs, including one hundred and five fifties. His strike rate of 164.31 is the third-highest amongst all India batters who have made at least 500 runs in the format, behind Abhishek Sharma (193.84) and Suryakumar Yadav (167.07).
The left-hander has also struck over 155 in each of the last three editions of the IPL. Since the 2023 edition, he has made 1,619 runs in the tournament, hitting two hundreds and 12 fifties in 44 games at a strike rate of 160.13. Only Suryakumar has made more runs than Jaiswal at a better strike rate (172.38) than him in this period.
However, he has been left out of the squad, with the India selectors going back to Shubman Gill after more than a year. Gill, who has a T20 strike rate of 138.89 - which rises to 139.27 for India, last played a T20I in July 2024. Gill has also been named the vice-captain of the team, taking over the responsibility from Axar Patel.
Gill was also released from India’s four-man travelling reserves contingent midway through the 2024 T20 World Cup. Jaiswal, however, stayed on for the entirety of the competition.
Speaking on Jaiswal’s surprise omission, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar hinted that the option for the opener was between Abhishek Sharma and Jaiswal, with Gill being a certainty: “It’s unfortunate. There’s Abhishek Sharma, what he’s done over the last few months that he’s been on the team, plus [the fact that] he can bowl a little bit, gives us an option if required by the captain. One of these guys [Abhishek or Jaiswal] was always going to miss out; it’s just unfortunate that he might have to wait for his chance.”
Shreyas Iyer excluded too
Iyer, who led the Punjab Kings spectacularly to the final of the 2025 IPL, showed massive improvements in his T20 game this season. He finished the tournament with 604 runs at a strike rate of 175 - only Chris Gayle (2011) and Suryakumar (2023) have made at least 600 runs in an IPL season at a better strike rate. It was a massive improvement from the strike rate of 146.86 he maintained last year. This was also just the second time that Iyer made more than 500 runs in an IPL season.
Iyer was also proficient against spin: He struck at 145.5 against them this year, hitting 11 sixes, the fourth-most among all batters in the season.
Agarkar blamed the lack of batting positions available for his exclusion: “You’ll have to tell me who he can replace. It’s no fault of his, nor is it ours. It’s just that you can pick 15, and he’ll have to wait for his chance.”
Suryakumar and Tilak Varma have cemented the No.3 and No.4 slots, the positions where Iyer usually bats in T20 cricket, leaving no vacant spots for him to fill.
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