On Friday, the BCCI Committee announced a strong India-A squad for the Unofficial Tests against England Lions. Abhimanyu Easwaran will lead the side in preparation for the three games prior to the senior team’s five-match Test series against England.
Surprising indeed was the exclusion of Shreyas Iyer from the India-A squad, a decision that has raised some eyebrows considering his recent reasonably impressive performances. There are some possible reasons the selectors could have excluded him apart from his performances. His team Punjab Kings is really standing well at the IPL right now and are on the verge of qualifying for the playoffs. They have won seven matches from 11, and if they go to the finals, it means Iyer would be playing till June 3, which would then mean he could miss two of the three unofficial Tests starting May 30.
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Hence, the BCCI decided to go for players whose teams are not in the playoffs or who are not even participating in the IPL. Hence, you would spot players from RR, SRH, and CSK such as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, and so forth in the squad.
Nevertheless, Iyer, who has been barred from the A-team, might still be in contention for the senior side for the Tests against England beginning on June 20. However, his last Test outing was way back in February 2023, and he has not done well in the last 12 innings. Hence, BCCI might want to delay bringing him back to Test cricket for now.
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The presence of Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan was ruled out from the A-team. These two players might have been awaiting their England tour. Not much has been heard about Iyer, so he might be held only for ODIs for now; his T20I future might be decided after the end of the ongoing IPL season.
