Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir Blasted As Shreyas Iyer Says He Only Played As Virat Kohli Was Injured

India's nearly comfortable 4-wicket victory against England in the first ODI of the 3-match series saw some proven performers rise to the occasion. Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer were the top-scoring batters for India on Thursday, scoring 87 and 59 respectively while skipper Rohit Sharma flopped yet again. However, the team also missed the ever-reliant No. 3 Virat Kohli in the game due to an injury, while Yashasvi Jaiswal made his ODI debut. However, a rather shocking development took place after the conclusion of the match as Shreyas Iyer revealed that he wasn't originally supposed to play the match.

Iyer, in a chat with the broadcaster, said that he wasn't in the playing XI in the initial plan but Kohli's knee injury created space for him in the middle. The revelation from one of India's most consistent middle-order batters left many former cricketers shocked.

Aakash Chopra, former India cricketer-turned-pundit, said that he can't wrap his head around the fact that skipper Rohit and coach Gautam Gambhir had initially planned to leave Iyer out of the playing XI.

"Trying to wrap my head around the revelation that Iyer wasn't likely to play if Kohli was fit. He's the first Indian to score 500+ runs batting at 4 in a World Cup. 2023. How could you bench him?? And if he wasn't going to play, where was Kohli supposed to bat? At 4? Surely, Gill wasn't getting pushed to 4," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Trying to wrap my head around the revelation that Iyer wasn't likely to play if Kohli was fit.
He's the first Indian to score 500+ runs batting at 4 in a World Cup. 2023. How could you bench him??
And if he wasn't going to play, where was Kohli supposed to bat? At 4? Surely,…

Another former India cricketer, Parthiv Patel,