“I just find that devoid of cricketing logic” - Sanjay Manjrekar’s brutal criticism of India’s 2025 Asia Cup squad

Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has criticized the selectors over India’s squad for the 2025 Asia Cup. The multi-nation event is scheduled to begin on September 9, with India drawn in Group A alongside hosts UAE, Pakistan, and Oman.

On Tuesday, August 19, T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav and chief selector Ajit Agarkar announced the 15-member squad for the tournament at a press conference in Mumbai. The team is as follows:

Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Harshit Rana, and Rinku Singh.

Since the squad was announced, several experts have criticized the selectors for leaving out players like Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Mohammed Siraj.

On Saturday, August 23, Sanjay Manjrekar shared a video on Instagram, in which he slammed the selectors for choosing players who have performed well in a different format instead of those who have excelled in the format for which the team is being selected. The 60-year-old said:

“It’s something I’ve seen over the years, not recently: this tendency of selectors to pick a player based on performances in one format, where that person excelled, and then picking him for another format. When I see a player getting rewarded for his Test match performances by being placed in the T20 side, I just find that devoid of cricketing logic. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Meanwhile, the five standby players for the team are Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, and Dhruv Jurel.

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“Just shocking” - Sanjay Manjrekar reacts to star batter’s omission from the 2025 Asia Cup squad

In the same video, Sanjay Manjrekar also reacted to in-form batter Shreyas Iyer’s exclusion from the 2025 Asia Cup, calling the decision “shocking.” Manjrekar said:

“Shreyas Iyer not making this T20 squad of India for the Asia Cup is just shocking. This is a guy who was left out of the Indian team for the right reason because they felt he wasn’t committing himself as much to domestic cricket. But it had the desired effect on Shreyas Iyer: when he came back again in the England at-home ODI series, the way he batted, you could see that he was just batting like he had never batted before."

"He didn’t put a foot wrong in that comeback series and then carried that form into IPL cricket. I don’t think any batter has had that kind of form throughout the IPL season, with the average over 50, strike rate over 170, and being the game-changer in the side with the bat. And he gets rewarded with non-selection," he added.

Manjrekar continued:

So, when you do that to a player who has put in one of the best performances ever in the last few months in a format for which the Indian team is being selected, and you leave him out of that format, that’s for a guy who has excelled in a completely different format: Test cricket. Pick a guy who’s done well in T20 cricket, and not just because somebody has done so well in Test cricket gets rewarded with a T20 place, especially at the cost of somebody like Shreyas Iyer."

Iyer, who last played a T20I for India in December 2023, has scored 1,104 runs in 47 innings, including eight fifties.