Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers recently admitted that he couldn’t understand Shreyas Iyer’s omission from the Asia Cup 2025 roster. Iyer’s omission has sparked heated debate among the cricketing community.
De Villiers stated that he had no idea why Iyer was not selected, but suggested that the presence of too many leaders could be one of the causes.
The 41-year-old stated that Shreyas Iyer’s development and leadership qualities should have made him an easy pick for his side.
“I’m just honestly taking a complete guess. Of course, it’s weird to me, a quality player like that, not making the starting squad for Team India, especially with the leadership qualities he’s bringing. Maybe, there are too many leaders there. I have no idea, to be honest. If there’s a 50-50 call, you would always lean towards the guy that you feel will bring the best out in other players,” stated de Villiers during a live chat with fans on X.
“He’s matured a lot. He has shown a lot of leadership qualities, but who knows what is going on behind closed doors? No one. Not me. Not you guys. Maybe, not even Shreyas knows. But there might be a few things that have taken place over the years that have determined why he’s not the flavour of the month for a certain tournament. He’s a quality player. He’ll be in my team more often than not,” he added.
De Villiers also acknowledged that off-field factors could have also played a part in his exclusion, as selectors consider such factors when making a “50-50 call between two players”.
“Sometimes, and I’m not talking about Shreyas now, but sometimes, thinking about when I was captaining, if there’s a 50-50 call between two players, I would always lean towards the guy that I feel offers more from a team perspective off the field. When it’s 50-50 on the field, you have to start looking at other areas like ‘Does he add value in the team room? Does he have a smile on his face? Does he uplift some of the other players around him? Or is he sort of draining energy from the squad?’ Maybe, it has something to do with that,” de Villiers concluded.
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