The former opening batter for India, Aakash Chopra, has raised his voice towards the injustice on the middle order batter of the Blue Brigade, Shreyas Iyer, who is knocking on the door of the selectors by celebrating a double century, having been overlooked for the selection of the five-Test matches in Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Iyer cracked 233 runs in just 228 deliveries, which helped Mumbai to cross the 600-run mark in their first innings against Odisha. The batter smacked 24 boundaries and nine sixes in that humongous knock, just days after being overlooked for the retention of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise.
Aakash Chopra, in a video shared on his YouTube channel, addressed that the Mumbai-born could be thinking of the unfair treatment regarding selection after his superb knock in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25.
“Shreyas Iyer has scored another double hundred. He was hitting. The match is going on at the BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex). He hit a straight shot to reach his double hundred. He has scored his highest first-class score. He has been consistently scoring runs for the last little while.” The former opener expressed.
The 29-year-old batter was dropped from the red-ball squad of the national side after the second Test in Vizag against England at the start of the year. In 14 games, he has 811 runs at an average of 36.86 with the help of five half-centuries and one century.
Since the start of 2023, the veteran has featured in seven Tests, where he has collected only 187 runs at an average of around 15, which wasn’t promising at that point when the other middle-order batters were scoring runs in the domestic tournaments.
“He might be thinking that injustice has been meted out to him because he scored a century on his Test debut, and then he is now not part of the Test team. He was dropped very quickly. After that, he scored 500 runs in the World Cup while batting at No. 4, and then he didn’t get the central contract.” Aakash Chopra added.
The decision, for him, to avoid Ranji Trophy didn’t sit well with the selectors, who later tore away the central contract of him at that moment. This happened despite the batter’s incredible form with the bat in the home ODI World Cup last year.
Aakash Chopra was shocked Shreyas Iyer was ignored by KKR
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selectors have announced the 18-member squad for the BGT 2024-25, which starts on November 22 at the Optus Stadium in Perth, while they also declared the 15-member squad for their four-T20I series against South Africa, starting from November 8, and Shreyas is missing from both the squad.
Aakash Chopra has displayed his surprise towards the decision of the batter not to stay with the KKR franchise, despite leading them to their title after nearly a decade.
“After that, he made his team win in the IPL, but KKR didn’t retain him. Whether KKR didn’t want to retain him or he asked for more money, I have no idea. However, whatever the story might be, the truth is that he has not been retained.” The renowned commentator shed light.
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The 47-year-old has pointed out how Iyer has been in good touch, scoring runs while entering the mega auction.
“So he is going to come in the auction now, and he has scored quite a few runs before the auction to show that he is in form and that his heart is at the right place, that he wants to play and do well. So Shreyas Iyer scoring a double hundred is a thumbs up with both hands.” Aakash Chopra concluded.