Gautam Gambhir finally breaks silence on Shreyas Iyer controversy and his future

India National Cricket Team head coach Gautam Gambhir has finally broken his silence on the controversial decision to drop Shreyas Iyer for the recent three-match ODI series opener against England in Nagpur. However, Virat Kohli’s injury made way for Shreyas Iyer in the playing XI.

The Indian think tank had originally dropped the idea of playing Iyer in the Nagpur ODI; instead, they gave Yashasvi Jaiswal the chance to make his ODI debut. But Virat Kohli had a swollen knee, which eventually paved the way for the middle-order batter to shine with the bat against England.

Shreyas Iyer enjoys a golden run in the England ODI series

After hitting the match-winning fifty, Shreyas revealed that he was not originally in the playing XI until Kohli was declared unfit for the first ODI against England, which left one and all stunned. Many former cricketers and fans slammed Gautam Gambhir and team management for the same.

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However, after his Nagpur knock, Iyer was retained in the playing XI for the remaining games, and he went in to make the most of the opportunity by hammering three fifties and helped the Men in Blue to clean sweep the ODI series 3-0 against England.

The right-handed batter finished the ODI series as the second-highest run-scorer with 181 runs at an impressive average of 60 and a strike rate of 123, with Shubman Gill leading the chart with 259 runs at an average of over 86 and a strike rate of 103 against England.

Gautam Gambhir breaks silence on Shreyas Iyer's omission from Nagpur ODI

Meanwhile, after the final ODI in Ahmedabad, Gautam Gambhir made it clear that Shreyas Iyer was never meant to be sidelined for the entire series against England. He clarified that India’s strategy was just to rotate players give chances to everyone and evaluate their form.

The Indian head coach said that Yashasvi Jaiswal was given the chance because of his strong performances in Australia, but Iyer was and will always be a key part of the ODI squad. Notably, Yashasvi was not picked in India’s squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in favor of Varun Chakravarthy.

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Gautam Gambhir said at the post-match press conference, “We wanted to give Yashasvi a go in the first game and see what he can bring to the table because he was in really good form in Australia. So, we wanted to see what kind of innings he played. You can’t judge someone by one innings, but we always knew that Shreyas was going to be an important player for us. What he’s done at No. 4… whether at the (50-over) World Cup, he’s just an important player.”

Shreyas Iyer breaks Virat Kohli’s record after stellar ODI series against England

With his remarkable performance against England, Iyer achieved a historic milestone by surpassing Virat Kohli’s record in ODI cricket. Iyer became the fastest Indian to score 25 fifty-plus scores, reaching the mark in just 60 innings in the 50-over format of the game.

Kohli shares the second spot with Navjot Singh Sidhu, both reaching the milestone in 68 innings. KL Rahul is the third fastest Indian to score 25 fifty-plus scores with 69 innings, followed by Shikhar Dhawan, who achieved this milestone in 72 ODI innings.

While Yashasvi Jaiswal has been left out of the Champions Trophy 2025, Shreyas Iyer seems to have sealed his spot with consistent performances in the ODI series vs England.