Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra praised Shreyas Iyer for his double-century for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 match against Odisha. Aakash Chopra said that Shreyas Iyer might feel unfairly treated due to his quick drop from the Indian Test team despite his consistent batting performances.
Shreyas scored a double century against Odisha at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy BKC in Mumbai on Thursday, November 7. He reminded selectors of his potential amid the lean patch in Test cricket. He scored 233 runs off 228 balls, including 24 boundaries and nine sixes, in the first innings.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra highlighted that Shreyas Iyer was unfairly treated with his exclusion from Tests and lack of a central contract despite his consistent performances across the formats.
"Shreyas Iyer has scored another double hundred. He was hitting. The match is going on at the BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex). He hit a straight shot to reach his double hundred. He has scored his highest first-class score. He has been consistently scoring runs for the last little while," Chopra said.
"He might be thinking that injustice has been meted out to him because he scored a century on his Test debut, and then he is now not part of the Test team. He was dropped very quickly. After that, he scored 500 runs in the World Cup while batting at No. 4, and then he didn't get the central contract," he added.
The renowned commentator expressed uncertainty about why Shreyas Iyer wasn't retained by Kolkata Knight Riders despite leading them to victory in IPL 2024. Chopra said that it could be due to either KKR not wanting to retain him or Iyer requesting a higher price.
"After that, he made his team win in the IPL but KKR didn't retain him. Whether KKR didn't want to retain him or he asked for more money, I have no idea. However, whatever the story might be, the truth is that he has not been retained," Chopra said in the same video.
The 29-year-old lost his spot in India's Test team during the England series earlier this year due to a series of disappointing performances. He has also been excluded from India's 18-member squad for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, which is set to begin in Perth on November 22.
It's worth mentioning that Shreyas has not been included in the 15-member squad for the four-match T20I series against South Africa, starting on Friday, November 8, in Durban. The middle-order batter last played for the Men in Blue in an ODI against Sri Lanka, where the team suffered a 0-2 loss.