Shreyas Iyer missed India’s T20 World Cup 2026 team mainly because of a bad injury and not playing T20 internationals lately. The squad, announced in December 2025, left him out to keep the team steady for the tournament in India and Sri Lanka.
Injury Details
- Shreyas Iyer got a serious spleen injury with internal bleeding during the third ODI against Australia in Sydney. It happened while he was taking a catch, so he had to go to the ICU and get a special procedure to fix it.
- His recovery took until January 2026, which meant two months without training and another month to get fully fit. This made him miss important series to prepare for upcoming matches.
Selection Factors
The team selectors choose a steady squad for the January T20I series against New Zealand, keeping it almost the same as the World Cup team. They did this because there are only 10 T20I matches left before the World Cup. Shreyas Iyer hasn’t played T20Is regularly and was left out of the Asia Cup 2025 squad too, so his good IPL performances weren’t enough to get him back in.
Also Read: Why Mohammed Shami was dropped from India’s T20 World 2026 Squad?
India’s Official Squad
India’s 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup 2026, led by Suryakumar Yadav with Axar Patel as vice-captain, includes: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (WK), and Tilak Varma.