The India squad for the last three Tests of the ongoing series against England was announced on Saturday (February 10). One of the highlights of the squad was the absence of Shreyas Iyer.
The right-handed batsman has not been included in the squad for the remainder of the five-match series. Even before the squad was announced, several media reports stated that Shreyas Iyer would not be included in the squad due to injury concerns. As per a report in the Indian Express, he felt pain in his back and neck while batting in the second Test in Vishakhapatnam.
However, Sports Tak has reported that poor form and not injury is the reason behind Shreyas Iyer’s exclusion from the team. The Mumbai star was facing severe criticism for his performance in recent times and the failure in the second Test reportedly prompted the selectors to drop him from the squad.
Shreyas Iyer has been dropped from the Indian Test team. [Sports Tak] pic.twitter.com/1Vtzyf89kt
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) February 10, 2024
Shreyas Iyer’s poor show:
Shreyas Iyer failed to do well with the bat in the two-match Test series in South Africa. In the first Test, he scored 31 and 6 before registering scores of 0 and 4 in the second game. However, with most of Indian batters failing to do well in the challenging conditions of South Africa, he was retained in the squad for the first two Tests against England.
Before that, the selectors did not pick him in the squad for the T20I series against Afghanistan and asked him to play the Ranji Trophy game against Andhra. He scored 48 runs in the first innings of the game. Shreyas Iyer’s failed to perform well in the first two Tests against England as well, registering scores of 35, 13, 27 and 29.
India squad for the final three Tests:
Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rajat Patidar, Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep
