Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal won’t be in India’s Asia Cup 2025 team. But Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer will be.
According to a Sportstar report on Sunday, August 17, Iyer, who last played a T20I for India in Bengaluru against Australia on December 3, 2023, will be a middle-order batter.
Iyer last played for India in the Champions Trophy 2025. In that tournament in Dubai, Iyer played 5 matches and scored 243 runs, was India’s highest run-scorer. The 2025 Asia Cup is also in Dubai and Abu Dhabi from September 9 to 28.
Sources say selectors and team management feel an experienced middle-order batter is needed given the slow conditions in the UAE. If Shreyas is picked, either Shivam Dube or Rinku Singh will be left out, even though both played in India’s last T20I series against England in January.
Iyer, who leads Punjab Kings in the IPL and scored 604 runs in IPL 2025, has 1104 runs in 51 T20Is.
RCB wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma will be Sanju Samson’s deputy for the Asia Cup 2025. Jitesh last played a T20I on January 14, 2024, in Indore against Afghanistan.
Neither Shreyas nor Jitesh have played a T20I since Gautam Gambhir became head coach in July 2024. Shreyas’s last T20I was in December 2023 and Jitesh’s was in January 2024.
Gill and Jaiswal last played a T20I on July 30, 2024, against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. Both were in good form in the IPL 2025 and deserve a spot in the T20I team based on their performance. But the current T20I players—Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma—have done well so dropping them to bring back Gill and Jaiswal doesn’t seem right. Captain Suryakumar Yadav, who has recovered from sports hernia, will be at the selection meeting. His presence will be crucial as the selectors plan for the T20 World Cup in India next year.
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There’s been talk of Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal returning to the T20I team. It seems the management wants to stick with the core group that has done well under Gambhir, winning 13 of 15 T20Is since he was appointed.
According to Sportstar, it looks like the management will stick with the core group that has been doing well under Gambhir, winning 13 of 15 T20Is since he took over.
Since there’s not much time between formats—the Asia Cup final is on September 28 and the first Test against the West Indies starts on October 2 in Ahmedabad—the selectors will likely keep Gill and Jaiswal fresh for the red-ball matches.
