Shreyas Iyer was one of the big names missing from the Indian cricket team squad that was announced for the T20I series against Afghanistan starting Thursday. With just three T20I matches for the Indian cricket team before the T20 World Cup 2024 in June, these games were crucial for the cricketers to make their case for selection. However, reports claimed that the selectors were not pleased with Shreyas’ batting in South Africa and he was not included by the team management due to disciplinary reasons.

Head coach Rahul Dravid was asked about the reports and he made it clear that no disciplinary action was taken against Iyer. During the pre-match press conference ahead of the first T20I encounter in Mohali, Dravid said that Iyer missed out purely based on the fact that the squad had to accommodate other batters.

“There were absolutely no disciplinary reasons for his non inclusion. It’s just that he missed out. There are a lot of batters in the team and I think Shreyas Iyer missed out. He did not play the T20Is in South Africa as well. It is unfortunate because he is a fine player but there are a lot of batters and it is not easy to fit everyone in the squad and the playing XI. So, no disciplinary reasons at all,” Dravid said.

This was not great news for Iyer who did not play the T20I series against South Africa as well and he will now have to depend on his performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 in order to strengthen his case for selection in the Indian cricket team squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024.

During the press conference, Rahul Dravid also revealed that Virat Kohli will not be playing the first T20I against Afghanistan on Thursday due to personal reasons and will be available for the second and third T20Is. He said that Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma will open the batting for India.