“We start our journey for the T20 World Cup with the Asia Cup,” Suryakumar Yadav, India's T20I captain, said at the press conference after the Asia Cup team selection in Mumbai on Tuesday. As for now, Shreyas Iyer is not part of that journey. The Punjab Kings captain, who scored 604 runs at a strike-rate of 175 in this year's IPL was left out of the 15-member Asia Cup squad because there was no vacancy for him. He wasn't even named among the five standbys. A third wicketkeeper, Dhruv Jurel, made the list instead. Shreyas not finding himself among the top 20 T20 cricketers in the country defies logic.
Why wasn't he considered? “It’s no fault of his. Nor is it our fault. Tell me who he can replace? At the moment, he will have to wait for his chance,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar told reporters.
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India's top order picked itself. There was no surprise in Shubman Gill returning as the vice-captain. He captained India in the T20I series in Zimbabwe immediately after the T20 World Cup last year. After that, he was Surya’s deputy in Sri Lanka. Then, Test cricket took precedence and Gill didn't feature in the T20I series against Bangladesh, South Africa and England.
The selectors have picked a full-strength squad for the Asia Cup, and although Agarkar said “it's not the final World Cup squad”, the selection dropped a hint about the thought process of the selection committee and team management going ahead.
Shivam Dube is in the squad because on paper he is a multi-skilled cricketer. Then again, he bowls right-arm dibbly-dobblies, not good enough for international cricket. As a batsman, he can take the spinners to the cleaners but Shreyas is arguably India’s best player against spin across formats. Also, no one is better than him in terms of managing the middle overs. Bits-and-pieces, however, has trumped quality under the pretext of team balance and continuity.
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According to a source in the know, Shreyas wasn't even considered for the Asia Cup. A good Duleep Trophy, however, might take him back to the Test fold for the home series against the West Indies in October.
And yet, it was difficult to join the dots as regards Shreyas’ Asia Cup omission. At the BCCI's Cricket Centre at Wankhede, this correspondent bumped into a top IPL functionary. He, too, was surprised.
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