Gautam Gambhir, the head coach of India, responded aggressively when asked why Shreyas Iyer had been dropped out of the Indian Test team for the upcoming England tour. The former cricket player stated strongly that he had no influence over squad selections.
Gautam Gambhir was also asked to explain why Iyer was not picked for the five Test match series in England which is due to start on June 20. “Main selector nahin hoon (I’m not the selector)” said Gambhir, at the Goswami Ganesh Dutt Memorial Cricket Tournament.
Reporter:- "Why was Shreyas Iyer not selected for the England tour?"
Gautam Gambhir:- "I am not the selector"
For your information, Gambhir was the first coach in Indian cricket history who sat in the selection meeting,And now he is saying that I am not the selector pic.twitter.com/V74yfW7jGk
— A// (@AdityaGurjar76) May 28, 2025Shreyas Iyer, an important player in India’s ODI squad, has not played for the Test side since February 2024. He was probably excluded from the remaining games because of his performance in the first two Test matches against England. He then played six games in the Ranji Trophy, scoring 480 runs at an average of 68.57.
Notably, Iyer and Gambhir became friends during the 2024 Indian Premier League, with Iyer leading the team and Gambhir coaching the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). They worked well together, and KKR won their third IPL championship. However, both have moved on, as the 30-year-old was not retained by the team, and Gambhir took over as India’s head coach after Rahul Dravid’s tenure.
Iyer is at the moment leading the PBKS in the IPL 2025 and helped them reach playoffs for the first time in 10 years. They will take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Qualifier 1 at Mullanpur May 29.
Meanwhile, since Rohit Sharma has retired from red-ball cricket and Virat Kohli has walked away from the format as well, Shubman Gill has been given the captaincy, with the expectation of him providing the No. 4 spot. There are also returns for Shardul Thakur and Karun Nair, while Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Arshdeep Singh, all uncapped players, have joined the squad.
