Former Indian wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel reckons Shreyas Iyer’s chances of being picked for the two-match Test series against the West Indies would not be straightforward. Iyer is leading India A against Australia in the ongoing first unofficial Test at Lucknow but the Mumbai batter was dismissed after scoring eight runs.
Furthermore, Iyer returned with scores of 25 and 12 in the Duleep Trophy clash against Central Zone while playing for the West Zone.
Meanwhile, Iyer was not included in the Asia Cup squad despite scoring 604 runs while leading Punjab Kings in IPL 2025 at a blistering strike rate of 175.07.
“We say Shreyas Iyer is confirmed but there are other candidates as well like Rajat Patidar. He scored a century in the Duleep Trophy final and a half-century before that. He scored in the Ranji Trophy as well. He has even performed in the IPL and I am sure he will be a strong contender. When the discussion happens, there will surely be a debate and it will not be a straightforward call to include Shreyas Iyer in the team,” Parthiv said on this YouTube channel.
The former Gujarat stumper reckons Iyer’s chances of making it to the Test squad will be high.
“The chances are high. There is no doubt that we may see Shreyas Iyer in that team. But the way our selection is happening at the moment, till you get confirmed news, it is difficult to say anything. It was even being told that he would be in the Asia Cup team, so these things can happen. But the chances of him playing the West Indies Test series seem high,” he reflected.
On the other hand, Patel said the India A series really help the team in preparing for the foreign tour and recalled how the New Zealand tour helped them ahead of the all-important Australian series in 2018-19.
“When we won the Test series in Australia in 2018, before that series, five of us who were Test specialists, Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Prithvi Shaw, we had gone to New Zealand before to play two India A games and then went to Australia from there. So these games and A tournaments definitely help players. India A tours are foundations and it was a big step to have started these,” he said.
Patel did not get a chance to play in the Test series against Australia as Rishabh Pant was India’s first-choice keeper.
