Sanjay Manjrekar slams selectors, questions Ajit Agarkar’s panel for including Shubman Gill ahead of Shreyas Iyer

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar questioned Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel’s logic of awarding Shubman Gill a return to T20I side, based on his Test performances against England. Gill scored 754 runs in five Test matches at an average of 75.40 while leading India for the first time.

Earlier, Gill scored 650 runs in 15 matches of IPL 2025 for Gujarat Titans at an average of 50 and a strike rate of more than 155. Manjrekar reckons picking Gill based on his performances in the red-ball format doesn’t make sense.

Sanjay Manjrekar said on Instagram video, “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.”

On the other hand, Shreyas 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. Manjrekar said Iyer not making the Asia Cup squad is shocking.

Manjrekar added, “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.

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.”

While Gill has been ruled out of the upcoming Duleep Trophy, Iyer will play for the West Zone.