The exclusion of much-hyped cricketer Shreyas Iyer from the Indian team for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025 continue to create buzz on and off the field. With many former cricketers questioning the decision to look past Shreyas, who had a phenomenal Indian Premier League both as a batter and as a captain. Now, Shreyas’ father Santosh Iyer has shown his disappointment after his son failed to make it in India’s T20I team for the Asia Cup.
“I don’t know what else Shreyas has to do to make it to the Indian T20 team,” said Shreyas’ father Santosh to TOI. “He has been performing so well in the IPL year after year, from Delhi Capitals to Kolkata Knight Riders to Punjab Kings, and that too as a captain. He even captained KKR to the IPL title in 2024 and led PBKS to the final this year,” he added.
He said Shreyas would not show his dissent, but deep down, he would be disappointed with this decision. “I am not saying make him the Indian captain, but at least select him in the team. Even if he’s left out, he never shows dissent. He’ll simply say, ‘Mera naseeb hai’ (It’s my luck; you can’t do anything now). He is always cool and calm,” said Santosh.
“He doesn’t blame anybody, but deep inside he must be naturally disappointed,” he added.
Terrific IPL
Having scored 604 runs at a strike rate of 175.07 in IPL 2025 while leading Punjab Kings to the final, Shreyas was expected to make the cut for India’s T20I team. However, the Indian selectors not just excluded Iyer, they did not even name him among the five reserves of the team.
While Iyer missed out on the Asia Cup squad with Indian selectors showed faith in the likes of Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh and captain Suryakumar Yadav for the middle order role in the final 15-member squad, the five reserve players list also did not have Iyer’s name.