Kaif, Grills for hypocrisy to choose BCCI for the Indian test team for England

Mohammad Kaif has joined the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) criticism bandwagon for Shreyas Iyer’s non-selection in India’s Test squad for England. Although Karun Nair has claimed Shreyas’ spot in the middle order, Kaif has a gripe with Sai Sudharsan’s selection.

Why Sai Sudharsan over Shreyas Iyer, asks Kaif

The former Indian batter feels that Sudharsan has been picked for his performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Since 2023, the southpaw has been one of Gujarat Titans’ best players and among the top openers in the league as well. But the 2025 season has been just an exception. Sudharsan has shown the consistency that one hardly finds in T20s.

Kaif feels his performance in white-ball cricket, IPL, has propelled him. But the same hasn’t been applied to Shreyas. The Mumbaiker was one of India’s best batters in the ODI World Cup 2023 and the Champions Trophy 2025. And aced the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and IPL as well. But he hasn’t been selected.

“Sai Sudharsan is a brilliant player, no doubt. But he was picked in the Test squad after a good IPL season (679 runs so far). Iyer, meanwhile, has been doing well for so long. He scored some 550 runs in the 2023 ODI World Cup and in the Champions Trophy as well. He is still doing a terrific job with the bat for Punjab Kings – 514 runs and counting. He is captaining too. So, on one hand, you are considering white-ball criteria for one player and not for the other,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.

Sudharsan, the wrong pick?

But there are a few holes in Kaif’s arguments. Shreyas’ Ranji Trophy run, 480 runs at 68.57 in 7 innings, seems great on paper. But a deeper look shows that his 2 hundreds (142 and 233) came against slightly weaker teams like Maharashtra and Odisha. If we remove these two scores, Shreyas scored just 105 runs in 5 innings.

Meanwhile, Sudharsan’s double hundred came against Delhi. But that’s not it. In the last 9 months, the southpaw has a hundred for India A against Australia A away from home. He’s only got experience playing first-class cricket in England through two County Championship stints for Surrey. One can clearly understand why Sudharsan was picked, and it wasn’t due to the IPL.