Sanjay Bangar said that he doesn’t see Shreyas Iyer replacing Ishan Kishan in India’s playing XI for the Asia Cup 2023 final against Sri Lanka. However, The two sides will play against each other at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday, September 17. With KL Rahul having virtually sealed his place in the playing XI, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan are in the race for the one available position in the middle order.

During an interaction on the Star Sports show Game Plan, Bangar said: “Not at all. I don’t think the Indian team management will look at Shreyas Iyer, and understandably so, because we saw in the game against Bangladesh, they made five changes, then there was a chance that even Shreyas Iyer could have got a game. The very fact that the team management wants to be patient and wants to give Shreyas Iyer that much time, I don’t think the team management will risk playing Shreyas Iyer at least in this particular match.”

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However, Shreyas was part of India’s playing XI for their group-stage games against Pakistan and Nepal. Moreover, he was supposed to play their first Super Four match against Babar Azam and Co. but Rahul replaced him at the last moment due to back spasms and he hasn’t played a game since then.

“Ishan Kishan has done fabulously well in the last five-six innings that he has played – three innings in the West Indies under trying situations, and a couple of useful innings (in the Asia Cup), one was a superb innings against Pakistan. After that, you saw how well he batted against Sri Lanka. So all in all, I feel that taking that dismissal apart, he has had a fabulous tournament and he has even been very useful in the field. He has been very athletic,” Sanjay Bangar concluded.