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AB De Villiers Puzzled By Shreyas Iyer’s Omission: ‘Maybe Truth Will Come Out One Day’
Follow UsShubman Gill, who had far inferior numbers, got handed a call-up and vice-captaincy, but Iyer was axed
In the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL), there have only been three instances of a batter scoring over 600 runs at a 175+ strike rate, and Shreyas Iyer’s IPL 2025 season is one of them. Yet those extraordinary returns weren’t enough for a T20I call-up for the Punjab Kings captain, who was omitted from India’s squad for the Asia Cup next month.
Shubman Gill, who had far inferior numbers, got handed a call-up and vice-captaincy, but Iyer was axed, with chief selector Ajit Agarkar claiming that there was ‘no space’ to fit in the 30-year-old.
A puzzled AB de Villiers felt that it was ‘weird’ that Iyer got omitted, and wondered whether the selectors did that to avoid a potential clash of egos in the squad.
“Thinking about when I was captaining, if there is a 50-50 call between two players, I would always lean towards the guy that offers more from a team perspective off the field. When it’s 50-50 on the field, you have to start looking at other areas like ‘Does he add value in the team room, does he have a smile on his face, does he uplift some of the other players around him?’. Or is he sort of dragging energy from the squad?,” said De Villiers on his YouTube channel, reported Indian Express.
“Maybe it’s got something to do with that. I am just taking a complete guess because it is weird that a quality player like him not making the starting squad for Team India, especially with the leadership qualities he is bringing. Maybe it’ll be too much of a clash with him there and maybe there are too many leaders and too many captains.
“Maybe the truth will come out one day and we’ll know why Shreyas is struggling to get into Team India,” he added.
De Villiers further asserted that if he were a selector, Shreyas would be in his team ‘more often than not’.
“Who knows what is going on behind closed doors. Maybe not even Shreyas knows. There might be a few things that have taken place over the years that’s determined why he is not the flavor of the month this tournament. I am not sure what the reason is because he will be in my team more often than not,” he said.
Iyer will instead now be playing in the Duleep Trophy, representing West Zone.