Yashasvi Jaiswal (left) and Shreyas Iyer.
Credit: PTI Photos
While much of India's squad selection for the ensuing Asia Cup went on expected lines, the omission of two players -- Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer-- in a format where they are quite prolific, might just raise a few eyebrows.
Suryakuamr Yadav will lead India's title defence in the T20 tournament to to be held in the UAE as the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel picked a 15-member squad with Shubman Gill named as his deputy.
While most of the players in the 15-man squad picked themselves up, Jaiswal might feel a bit unlucky to have missed the cut as selectors preferred to stick with Abhishek Varma at the top.
The 23-year-old has been named as a standby though, with Agarkar saying it was a tough decision to make.
"It's unfortunate that Jaiswal has had to miss out, but he'll have to wait as what Abhishek (Sharma) has done on the top of the order can't be looked past," said Agarkar during the press conference while making the squad announcement.
Another key player to have missed out in the tournament for continental supremacy is Iyer, who had showed tremendous form by scoring a whopping 604 runs at a strike rate of 170 while guiding Punjab Kings to the Indian Premier League (IPL) final earlier this year. This was a season after guiding Kolkata Knight Riders to an IPL trophy-winning campaign.
As in Jaiswal's case where they maintained the status quo with Abhishek, selectors preferred to stick with incumbent Tilak Varma
Agarkar blamed it on the abundance of T20 talent that makes it difficult to accommodate Iyer, who is known for his dashing batting in the shortest format.
"We've got some serious options in T20 squad...sometimes not the easiest squad to pick but good headache to have."
"With regard to Shreyas, who can he replace? No fault of his, nor is it ours. At the moment, you can just pick 15. So he'll have to wait for his chance," added Agarkar while explaining the rationale behind leaving out two accomplished T20 players.
With Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma more or less cementing their T20 berths, selectors had to take a tough call as there was no room for Jaiswal and Iyer.
Jaiswal can at least draw comfort from the fact that he has been named as one of the standbys and with a left-right combination preferred at the top, he may get a look in.
T20 selections will always see a few batters becoming the "fall guys", and this time it is the turn of Jaiswal and Iyer. But their time will come for sure.
(With inputs from agencies)