Why was Shreyas Iyer omitted from India's main Asia Cup squad?
India, on Monday, August 8, announced their 15-member squad for the Asia Cup 2022, beginning August 27 in the UAE. Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel missed out with injuries, while former skipper Virat Kohli and KL Rahul returned to the setup.
Deepak Hooda, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan were rewarded for their recent brilliance in the format, and Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson were the notable absentees.
Shreyas Iyer, alongside Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar was named a standby player for the competition, beginning August 27. Iyer had a fine start to the year in T20Is, and scored 64 off 40 in his most recent outing - against West Indies in the fifth T20I in Florida on Sunday - but that wasn’t enough to find him a place in the first 15.
Here are the possible reasons why Shreyas Iyer was omitted from India’s main Asia Cup squad:
Recent form
Iyer had a brilliant start to the year, with a brisk 25 off 16 against West Indies in Kolkata followed by three unbeaten fifties against Sri Lanka - a feat matched only by David Warner in T20I cricket. He was Kolkata Knight Riders’ leading performer with 401 runs at 30.85 in an otherwise disappointing campaign, but the strike-rate, on occasions left much to be desired.
His 36 in a high-scoring series opener against South Africa in June came rather slowly given the batting conditions in Delhi, as did his 23-ball 28, when Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant 117 off 55 revived hopes in a 216-run chase against England at Trent Bridge last month.
Struggles in the first-three T20Is against West Indies, with scores of 0, 10 and 24 at a combined strike-rate of 81 might’ve pushed him further down the pecking order.
Short-ball struggles
The visual of Brendon McCullum signalling England bowlers to go short against Iyer in the Edgbaston Test last summer would be remembered for long. McCullum had worked alongside Iyer in a head-coach capacity with KKR, and had made his observations of the right-hander’s shortcomings against pace and bounce.
He has been unsettled at times with extreme pace too, when set up early with bouncers, and that was evident in the IPL 2022 wherein Umran Malik had got him twice, once with a searing yorker as the right-hander shaped up for a go-to square cut. His recent omission pretty much rules out his place for the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, a country known for its fast and bouncy pitches.
This has to be the highlight of that innings 🔥
— CricXtasy (@CricXtasy) April 15, 2022
Top stuff from Umran Malik to Shreyas Iyer.#SRHvKKR pic.twitter.com/rBBbotFJsy
Lacks flexibility in terms of batting position
Iyer has predominantly been a No.3 batter, especially in white-ball cricket, and perhaps lacks the flexibility to bat out of position in the shortest version. He did give the West Indies bowlers a runaround with eight fours and two sixes on Sunday, but those came in fairly good batting conditions, with no significant movement and bounce available to the bowlers.
India have Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav as potential No.3 candidates (add KL Rahul if they decide to open with Rishabh Pant for a left-right combination). Suryakumar Yadav, the second-ranked T20I batter currently, is in prime form, and excelled as as opener in the West Indies recently, and can play the finisher’s role to great effect if required, as he did for the Kolkata Knight Riders and later, at times for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Kohli has the skill set to open, and has done so with great success in the past in T20 cricket.
Iyer lacks versatility on that front, and so, India have preferred a more assured option in Deepak Hooda, who can bat anywhere between No.3 to No.7, and can chip in with his off-breaks.