'He is now scoring....' - Former India skipper questions selectors on dropping Shreyas Iyer from Test series against England

When Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired and were not with the team for the upcoming five-match Test series against England, starting from June 20, why did the selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar not choose to call Shreyas Iyer for the all-important overseas assignment? The question still remains.

After a lackluster performance against New Zealand and then Australia, India crashed out of the World Test Championship Final (WTC Final 2025) equation. For almost the last year, Shreyas Iyer has been experiencing one of his finest forms on the field; even Sourav Ganguly also enjoyed the performance of the Mumbaikar thoroughly.

Like many cricket fans, Ganguly was also amazed not to find Iyer's name in the Team India's Test squad list. The right-handed batter was one of India’s top run-scorers in the 2023 World Cup and 2025 Champions Trophy. In IPL 2025, he bagged 604 runs in 17 games at a strike rate of 175 and guided Punjab Kings to the final after 11 years. So, as a player, he has probably ticked all the possible boxes. But still, it finds no room in the test setup. Ganguly himself found no clue behind BCCI's decision to leave Iyer out of the England series.

Ganguly's view about Shreyas Iyer

The Indian cricket legend believed that Iyer deserved to be in the series. Because Iyer proved himself by performing under pressure and scoring runs. Previously, he had to endure criticism for lacking skills against short balls. But now, the batter has improved his batting a lot; that's what Sourav opined.

"He has been playing at his best in the last one year and should have been on this team. The last year has been fantastic for him. He isn’t the player who got left out. He is now scoring under pressure, taking responsibility, and playing the short ball well. Although Test cricket is different, I would have had him in this series to see what he can do," Ganguly said in a recent interview.