‘Leaving out Iyer shows India’s squad depth’

new delhi: Former New Zealand batter Ross Taylor on Friday said the depth in India’s T20I squad for the Asia Cup allowed the national selectors to leave out a player of Shreyas Iyer’s calibre, who was ignored for the continental tournament.

Iyer, who had an impressive domestic season and also led his IPL franchise Punjab Kings into the final, failed to find a place in the 15-member squad announced earlier this week.

“I haven’t seen the side yet so can’t say. (But) when you can leave that type of quality out, you’ve got to be pretty comfortable with the depth of your squad,” Taylor said on the sidelines of a CLT10 League event.

He also lavished praise on new Test skipper Shubman Gill, who led India to 2-2 draw in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. “It was a great series against England, whenever you go in the foreign conditions in Test cricket, especially these days, you have to take it very well. He has played in great spirits and led from the front.”

One of New Zealand’s all-time great batters, Taylor will turn out for the Supreme Stallions in the CLT10 League.

“It has gone full circle started playing with the tennis ball and now finishing my career playing with the tennis ball, its a great concept of 10 overs,” Taylor said.

Meanwhile, former Sri Lanka pacer Farvez Maharoof seconded Taylor’s comments, saying India are spoilt for choices even though they will play Asia Cup without Iyer as well as opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal.

India is spoilt for choices. (Ajit) Agarkar (chairman of selectors) is just too straight forward. These two guys haven’t done wrong. One (Jaiswal) takes on the bowlers from ball one, while the other is a leader of men. The system in India to produce players is fantastic,” Maharoof said. agencies