Former India player Manoj Tiwary, who shares a strained relationship with Gautam Gambhir, on Thursday took a dig at the India head coach for leaving out Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer from the Asia Cup squad. While Jaiswal made it to the list of standbys for the upcoming tournament, Iyer wasn’t even selected for that.
“Two deserving candidates have been left out of the team. One is Shreyas Iyer and the other is Yashasvi Jaiswal. If you see old videos of the current head coach Gautam Gambhir, he had said that Yashasvi Jaiswal is such a player who at any given moment can walk into India’s T20 team. And you cannot think of keeping him out of T20s. Now that he himself is the coach, there is no place for Yashasvi,” Tiwary said to ANI.
“Also, if you see Shreyas Iyer’s performance in last year’s IPL and the domestic circuit. He has been one of the bests in the format. The way he averaged in 50s while making runs, guided Punjab Kings to the IPL final and before that, captained KKR to the title, it’s an eye-opener that he didn’t get a place in the T20 side. This is why I have been saying for years now that the selection process should be made live so that sports lovers know who has been selected and why,” he added.
#WATCH | Kolkata | On India Asia Cup 2025 squad announcement, Former Indian Cricketer & West Bengal Minister, Manoj Tiwary, said, “Two deserving candidates, Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal, have not been able to make it to the team… If you see old videos of Gautam Gambhir, he… pic.twitter.com/EglnpTfLXy
— ANI (@ANI) August 21, 2025
What chief selector Ajit Agarkar said
“It’s unfortunate that Shreyas Iyer misses out. It’s no fault of his, neither ours. He has to wait for his chance,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar said. “We have got some serious options in T20 squad…sometimes not the easiest squad to pick but good headache to have,” he added. Along with the main squad of 15, the selectors also named 5 players as standbys but Iyer’s name wasn’t in that list as well.
Iyer walloped over 600 runs for the first time in an IPL season in 2025, with his 175.07 strike rate ranking the best among all batters. He also clobbered 39 sixes as Punjab finished runners-up under his leadership. For India in 51 T20Is, the Mumbaikar has recorded 1104 runs, averaging 30.66.
On Jaiswal’s exclusion, he said, “It’s unfortunate Jaiswal has had to miss out but he will have to wait.”
