Former Indian cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar has raised his eyebrow over Shreyas Iyer’s refusal to play red-ball cricket for the next six months while remaining available for white-ball cricket. Iyer recently got appointed India A captain for a two-game red-ball series against Australia A, but he chose to skip after the first unofficial Test citing ongoing back issues.
Even after his absence from the Test roster last year, Iyer is still an important player in India’s ODI team and was named the vice-captain for the soon-to-be-played series against Australia. Vengsarkar, though, was critical of the logic behind Iyer’s selective availability, saying it’s “hard to understand” how a player can be ruled out of playing red-ball cricket while still being allowed to compete in shorter formats.
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“To be honest, it’s a dilemma for me, because he [Iyer] says that he is unfit for red-ball cricket, but is fit for the white-ball cricket. I don’t understand the difference between red-ball cricket and the white-ball cricket. I feel that if you are fit for white-ball cricket, you are obviously fit for red-ball cricket too. Choosing red-ball or white-ball and such things are beyond my comprehension,” Dilip Vengsarkar told midday.
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The 30-year-old, once tipped to be the natural heir to Ajinkya Rahane in India’s middle order for Tests, has played 14 Tests till date, scoring 811 runs at a mean of 36.86. Lack of consistency, however, saw him dropped from the Test squad, with his last game being against England in February 2024.
