India’s dependable middle order batter Shreyas Iyer has been dropped from the India Squad for the IND vs AFG T20I series. Iyer last featured in the shortest format of the game in the series against Australia. As things stand, with the return of Virat Kohli in the squad, only a great IPL can save Shreyas Iyer from fighting for his place in the team.
Shreyas Iyer has lost out his spot to a bunch of youngsters and the returning Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. With the middle order being filled, Iyer has no spot left in the team. Adding more salt to the wounds is the absence of Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav.
All Hopes Not Lost
Once the duo returns, Iyer will find it even difficult to fight for his chance in the India team. But all hope is not lost for Shreyas Iyer. A superb IPL can work wonders for the middle order batter. Iyer, the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) missed IPL 2023 owing to his back injury.
Nitish Rana led KKR in Iyer’s absence last season and Iyer being fit has been retained as the captain for the Kolkata outfits. Iyer has decent stats to back him up in the shortest format of the game. He has featured in 51 matches and have amassed 1104 runs with 8 fifties.
After the ODI World Cup he played the 4th and 5th T20I against Australia and hammered a 53 in the 5th T20I in Bnegaluru. He then played the 1st ODI against SA where he managed yet another fifty. He left the ODI squad to prepare for the Test series.
Now that the Proteas tour is over, and Iyer having no place in the IND vs AFG T20I series, the star batter will prepare for the upcoming mega IND vs ENG 5-match Test series starting on 25th Jan.
IND Squad vs AFG: Rohit Sharma (C), S Gill, Y Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, W Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
