BCCI Official Rules Out Possibility Of Shreyas Iyer's Return In Test Team, Says 'There's No Room For...'

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Shreyas Iyer, who scored a century on his Test debut for India against New Zealand in Kanpur three years ago, last played a red-ball match against England in Vizag from February 2-6, 2024.

Shreyas Iyer was on fire in the ODI World Cup 2023. In 11 matches of the 50-over megaevent for the Rohit Sharma-led side, the right-handed batter scored 530 runs with an average of 66.25 and strike rate of 113.24. But since then nothing has gone right for the Mumbai-based batter. In addition to his poor form, Iyer struggled with a back injury and then was dropped from the BCCI central contract list as well after he opted out of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match.

Iyer had hoped to make a return to the Indian team with a good performance in the Duleep Trophy 2024, but in the two matches played so far for India D, he failed to impress. And now, because of that, his chances of playing Tests in the near future are almost negligible.

According to a BCCI official, who was quoted as saying by The Telegraph, at the moment there is no room for Iyer to be in the red-ball team, and he is unlikely to travel with the Indian team to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which is set to start on November 22 in Perth.

“At the moment, there’s no room for Shreyas to be in the Test team. Who will he replace? Besides, his shot selection has been a concern in Duleep, especially yesterday (Sunday). He was well set and then suddenly played such a shot (off left-arm spinner Shams Mulani). When you are set and then batting on a flat deck, you need to make the best use of that opportunity,” he said.

“Shreyas could be there (in the Mumbai squad) for the Irani Cup (beginning on October 1 in Lucknow). Even if he’s picked for the Bangladesh T20Is (from October 6), he still might play Irani and then be available from the second T20I onwards.

“Now, if he doesn’t fire in Irani too, he still has the Ranji Trophy to get runs. It wasn’t too many days ago when he was batting so well in last year’s ODI World Cup. He suffered an injury too, which needs to be considered,” said another Board official.

“Also, with still one round left in Duleep, you never know he might score a hundred. He needs to regain form. Most likely he won’t go to Australia for his problems against the short ball, but one can’t just ignore his runs at home.”