Cricketer-turned-expert Sanjay Manjrekar has slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) senior men's selection committee chair Ajit Agarkar & his team for choosing players based on one format-based performances, rather than choosing purely on form, or their skills in one format. The expert said India's 15-member squad for the Asia Cup 2025 event utterly defied cricketing logic. Though the former India player refrained from taking any names, Manjrekar said that the selection panel has a tendency of format mixing.
The 15-member Asia Cup squad announced earlier this week divided experts and fans alike, with the majority highly disappointed not to see the name of Shreyas Iyer in the squad. Some even went onto to an extent saying that the selectors just had to fit Shubman Gill, and in the process, dropped quite a few players like Shreyas, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Mohammed Siraj.
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Notably, Gill was selected in the Continental Cup squad owing to his phenomenal form in the five-match Test series against England, wherein he scored a record-breaking 754 runs. Not only was the 25-year-old selected in the squad, but he was also made the deputy to the T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav.
“It’s something I’ve seen over the years, not recently: this tendency of selectors to pick a player based on performances in one format, where that person excelled, and then picking him for another format. When I see a player getting rewarded for his Test match performances by being placed in the T20 side, I just find that devoid of cricketing logic. It just doesn’t make any sense,” said Manjrekar on Instagram.
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Shreyas Iyer should have been included in Asia Cup squad: Manjrekar
Another point that irked Manjrekar is the snub of Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shreyas Iyer. The batter showed scintillating form in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) season, scoring over 600 runs at a strike rate of over 170. The batter played at various positions for the team, and always cared about how the franchise was doing well. Shreyas also displayed great form in India's title-winning campaign in the Champions Trophy 2025 event.
“Shreyas Iyer not making this T20 squad of India for the Asia Cup is just shocking. This is a guy who was left out of the Indian team for the right reason because they felt he wasn’t committing himself as much to domestic cricket. But it had the desired effect on Shreyas Iyer: when he came back again in the England at-home ODI series, the way he batted, you could see that he was just batting like he had never batted before,” remarked Manjrekar.
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The expert also went on to state that Iyer's snub in T20I should have ideally come only after a batter had excelled than him, and not based on one format's exceptional batting performance.
“He didn’t put a foot wrong in that comeback series and then carried that form into IPL cricket. I don’t think any batter has had that kind of form throughout the IPL season, with the average over 50, strike rate over 170, and being the game-changer in the side with the bat. And he gets rewarded with non-selection,” Manjrekar added.
“So, when you do that to a player who has put in one of the best performances ever in the last few months in a format for which the Indian team is being selected, and you leave him out of that format, that’s for a guy who has excelled in a completely different format: Test cricket. Pick a guy who’s done well in T20 cricket, and not just because somebody has done so well in Test cricket gets rewarded with a T20 place, especially at the cost of somebody like Shreyas Iyer.”
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To make things worse, Iyer was not even included in the five-standby list of players for the Asia Cup 2025. While the door is not completely shut on the Mumbai batter, this possible exclusion might be a start of greater things to come, as Iyer never gives up on the fight and self-respect.
