South African batting great AB de Villiers found it “weird” that a batter of Shreyas Iyer’s calibre has been left out of India’s Asia Cup squad and tried second guessing if his omission could be linked to what the batter could bring to the table for the team off the field.
Iyer, who had an impressive domestic season and also led his IPL franchise Punjab Kings into the final by scoring more than 600 runs at a strike-rate of 170 plus, failed to find a place in the 15-member squad announced earlier this week.
“It is tough, guys. I was just going through the squad. I was thinking, where can we fit Shreyas in, because I’ve seen all the headlines and some fans being upset. I think Shreyas will be the most upset because he’s played some really good cricket over the last few years,” De Villiers said during a live chat with cricket fans on X.
“He’s matured a lot. He has shown a lot of leadership qualities, but who knows what is going on behind closed doors? No one. Not me. Not you guys. Maybe not even Shreyas knows. But there might be a few things that have taken place over the years that have determined why he’s not the flavour of the month for a certain tournament. He’s a quality player. He’ll be in my team more often than not,” he said.
Shreyas Iyer, who has played 51 T20Is for India, has scored 1104 runs at an average of 30.66 and a strike rate of 136.12. His last appearance in the format came against Australia in December 2023.
The post ‘Will be most upset…’: AB de Villiers labels Shreyas Iyer’s omission from Asia Cup squad as a ‘tough’ call appeared first on Cricket Country.
