"No Chance Of Winning T20 World Cup": India's Asia Cup Squad Blasted By WC Winner, 3 Undeserving Stars Named
The Indian cricket squad for the Asia Cup T20, that starts on September 9, has disappointed many
- 1983 World Cup winner K Srikkanth criticised the selection of Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, and Harshit Rana
- Shreyas Iyer was excluded entirely, while Yashasvi Jaiswal was named as a standby, which angered Srikkanth
- "We might win the Asia Cup, but there is no chance of winning the T20 World Cup with this bunch," he said
The Indian cricket squad for the Asia Cup T20, that starts on September 9, has disappointed many. Almost all cricket experts are convinced that two players - Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal - deserved a chance. While Jaiswal was named among the five stanby players, Iyer did not even get that slot. 1983 World Cup winner Krishnamachari Srikkanth said that he finds the selection of Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube and Harshit Rana baffling in the Asia Cup squad.
"We might win the Asia Cup with this team, but there is no chance of winning the T20 World Cup with this bunch," said Srikkanth on his YouTube channel.
"Are you going to take this team to the World Cup? Is this the preparation for the T20 World Cup, which is hardly six months away? They have gone backwards. Axar Patel has been axed from vice-captaincy. I don't know how Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube and Harshit Rana have come in.
"IPL is considered the main criteria for selection, but the selectors seem to have considered performances before that."
Former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar also could not fathom the fact that India excluded Shreyas Iyer from the Asia Cup squad, announced at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The selectors sprung a major surprise by including Test team captain Shubman Gill in the squad despite him missing the last few T20I matches, chief selector Ajit Agarkar addressed the decision to leave Iyer out as ‘no fault of his. Nor is it ours.'
"I can't fathom or understand what reason could justify Shreyas Iyer not being part of the 20-member squad. I'm not even talking about the final 15, but the 20 itself, which sends a clear message that Shreyas Iyer is not in the selectors' scheme of things, at least from a T20 perspective,” said Nayar to JioHotstar.
Iyer had scored 604 runs at a strike rate of 175 in IPL 2025 and led the Punjab Kings to the final in Ahmedabad, but failed to find a place in the 15.
Gill's recall comes on the back of a strong IPL 2025 campaign for Gujarat Titans, where he led the team into the playoffs and amassed 650 runs in 15 innings at an average of 50 and a strike rate of 155.87. He also has an impressive T20I record, scoring 578 runs in 21 matches at an average of 30.42 and a strike rate of 139.27, with one century and three fifties. Notably, Gill is among the few Indians to have centuries in all three international formats.
India Cricket Team