"Hopefully the selectors will now stop overestimating Shreyas Iyer's batting ability"- Ian Chappell on India's squad for the rest of England series

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell reacted to Team India's squad for the remainder of the ongoing England series with scathing remarks on out-of-form batter Shreyas Iyer.

Iyer was excluded from the 17-member Indian squad for the final three Tests owing to poor form and injury concerns. The 29-year-old has gone eight Test innings without a half-century and struggled with the bat in the current England series.

Iyer has mustered only 104 runs in the two Tests at an average of 26.

In his column for ESPN Cricinfo, Chappell felt the return of KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja would strengthen the side and was pleased that the selectors finally got it right by dropping Iyer.

"India is a strong side and they also have a good leader in Rohit Sharma. They will be greatly strengthened by Ravindra Jadeja's and KL Rahul's recovery from injury, but that Virat Kohli will not return for the rest of the series is a blow. Hopefully the selectors will now stop overestimating Shreyas Iyer's batting ability and learn to value Kuldeep Yadav's wicket-taking capability more," wrote Chappell.

The duo of Rahul and Jadeja missed the second Test with injuries, while Virat Kohli was out for both the opening two games.

Unfortunately for Team India, Kohli will miss the remainder of the series due to personal reasons.

"Will help England enormously if Stokes is once again able to function as an allrounder" - Ian Chappell

India v England - 2nd Test Match: Day One

Ian Chappell believed England skipper Ben Stokes resuming his bowling and fielding at the slips will help the side massively.

Following knee surgery, the 32-year-old hasn't used his right-arm medium-pace bowling in the two Tests against India.

"It will help England enormously if Stokes is once again able to function as an allrounder, as his bowling is a distinct weapon. It would also help if he fielded in the slips, especially to the spinners, as he is one of the best in that position," wrote Chappell.

The Australian great also hoped Stokes would be more proactive in the early stages of his batting innings.

"One personal area Stokes could look at is his own batting. If he were more proactive at the start of each innings, it would improve his play. Stokes is a very good batter but he's at his best when he's looking to score," added Chappell.

Despite bowling sparingly since the last English summer, Stokes has an overall 197 Test wickets with four 5-wicket hauls in 99 outings.

He has also been inconsistent with the Willow since 2021, averaging in the mid-30s over 32 games with only three centuries.