Aakash Chopra Backs Shreyas Lyer to be Part of India’s T20 World Cup Team After Asia Cup Snub

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has put his weight behind to be part of India’s T20 World Cup 2026 team after he was not included in the Asia Cup squad. The Asia Cup squad was announced on Tuesday in Mumbai.

Iyer scored 604 runs in 17 matches at an average of 50.33 and a blistering strike rate of 175.07. Ergo, he played an instrumental role in taking PBKS to the final of the tournament but he was overlooked by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel.

Furthermore, Iyer had scored 243 runs in five matches of the Champions Trophy 2025 and had played a key role in taking the team to glory. Iyer’s performance in the white-ball format has been top class and thus his omission is baffling.

“Shreyas Iyer not being there is a big story. What more will Shreyas Iyer have to do? What more can you do than what you have already done? You had a 600-plus run IPL season, took the team to the final, scored runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, played Ranji, and won the Champions Trophy. That’s all you can do as a human being,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.

“This is the Asia Cup team. Don’t attach the World Cup with it because there are 15 T20Is after this. The world changes in 15 T20Is. If he keeps scoring runs in ODIs, sooner or later, Shreyas Iyer will be part of the team. I have a strong feeling that Shreyas Iyer will be a part of India’s T20 World Cup team,” he added.

Iyer was not even included among the five stand-by players of the squad, and Chopra said it is very surprising that the Mumbai batter is not part of the reserves.

“Shreyas’ name is not even there in the five reserves, and that is surprising. It’s understandable that you couldn’t have him in the 15 as you can’t play him in the XI, and you wanted lower-order batters as backup, where Shivam Dube is there, and Rinku Singh will be given another chance, which is absolutely par for the course,” he said.

“However, a place could have been created in the reserve players at least, where you have kept Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Prasidh Krishna. This player’s name could have been there. You haven’t kept it there either, and that doesn’t send a great signal. The clarity in front of Shreyas’ name is completely not there,” Chopra observed.

India Squad for Asia Cup: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.