Exclusive | 'Shreyas Iyer should have been in England, this is the best he has ever batted': Sourav Ganguly

Shreyas Iyer and Sourav Ganguly (BCCI/AP Photos)

Very rarely does Sourav Ganguly speak up in this fashion. And when he does you know he means business. When we met at his London apartment on Monday, June 9, the first cricketer we spoke about was Shreyas Iyer. Ganguly was very clear Iyer should have been part of the Test team to England. In fact, soon after we had settled down in his apartment, he said: “What do you think of Shreyas Iyer’s omission? Do you remember what I had tweeted in March?”

The truth is I did not and he instantly got to his phone trying to dig up the tweet from March 25. And once he did, he handed me the phone. “Shreyas Iyer is ready to play all formats…” Ganguly had predicted it ahead of the IPL. He now went on to add, “I know white ball isn’t an index for red ball cricket but you can clearly see he is a much improved player against the short ball. He played well in the Champions Trophy and he should have been here with the team. I would surely have picked him and got him here for the Test series.”

Shreyas iyer the most improved batsman in last 1 yr .. ready for all formats . Great to see his improvement after a few issues on length @ShreyasIyer15 @bcci
Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) March 25, 2025

Strong words, I said to him, and it was as if he wasn’t keen on stopping. “This is the best Iyer has ever batted. You can see that in the way he is playing. See the confidence and you will know what I am talking about. You pick players on confidence and on how they are batting. This guy is playing the best he ever has and as I said I’d have picked him on this tour. When you don’t have a Kohli or a Rohit or a Rahane, Iyer should have been there for he also has the experience. He has led domestic sides and you can see he is in that zone”, said Ganguly.

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While we spoke about Gill and Sai Sudharsan and Jaiswal thereafter, Sourav came back to Iyer once more as we were about to have lunch. “Have you seen the way he batted in the IPL? See how he has faced the short ball. It is evident he has worked on his game against short pitched bowling and the improvement is showing. That’s why I had tweeted in March that this guy is ready to play all formats. While I understand the selectors did not pick him for this tour, let me tell you that in this sort of form you can’t keep him out of red ball cricket for too long. He will surely get an opportunity soon from what I have seen”, concluded Sourav.

Michael Clarke bats for Shreyas Iyer

He isn’t the first person who has mentioned Iyer to me. Former Australian captain Michael Clarke too made a very strong case for Iyer just about a week earlier. “He has batted wonderfully in the IPL and looks in excellent touch. While I haven’t seen much of Indian domestic red ball cricket, my assumption is he had a very good season there as well. That’s why I feel he should have been part of the Indian team to England”, said Clarke.

While the selectors haven’t picked him, it is also true that many will keep an eye on the Indian batting. If the batters don’t stand up to the challenge, the Iyer omission could well come to haunt Ajit Agarkar and Co.