When a cricketer of Shreyas Iyer's standing finds himself repeatedly passed over for national selection, the story becomes less about sport and more about the ancient human struggle between what we deserve and what we receive. Sitting before a podcast microphone in September 2025, Iyer offered not a complaint but a philosophy — one forged in the quiet frustration of watching doors close despite consistent performance. His words, aimed at no one and everyone, remind us that the most durable form of defiance is not protest but persistence.
Shreyas Iyer on Selection Snub: 'Stop Giving a Sh*t' What Others Think
Stop giving a shit about what people think about you
Mark
So Shreyas Iyer gets left out of the Asia Cup squad, and instead of complaining, he goes on a podcast and tells people to stop caring what others think. Is that genuine philosophy or is it a way of processing disappointment?
Mimi
I think it's both. He's clearly frustrated—he says so directly. But he's also describing something real that happened to him over time. The rejections and failures actually changed how he thinks. That's not a coping mechanism; that's a person who learned something.
Luke
But here's what we need to be careful about: we're taking his word that Gambhir has a personal grudge from the IPL. That's reported, but it's not confirmed by Gambhir or anyone in the selection committee. We know Iyer was left out. We don't actually know why.
Mimi
Fair point. But Iyer's philosophy doesn't depend on proving the grudge exists. He's saying: regardless of why I'm not selected, this is how I'm going to respond. That's the actual story.
Mark
He mentions being named India A captain for a red-ball series. Is that a real opportunity or a way of keeping him sidelined?
Luke
The source doesn't tell us. It could be either. It could be a genuine pathway back to the senior team, or it could be a holding pattern. We just don't know yet.
Mimi
What we do know is that Iyer is framing it as a chance to keep working. He's not treating it as a demotion, at least not publicly. Whether that's authentic or strategic, the reader can decide.
Mark
His advice to young players—build a routine, cut the noise, believe in yourself—that feels like something anyone could say. What makes it specific to his situation?
Mimi
The specificity is that he's saying it while being actively excluded from a major tournament. He's not giving this advice from a position of success. He's giving it from inside the frustration.
Luke
And that matters. But we should also note: we don't have any response from Gambhir or the selection committee. We're hearing one side of a story about selection politics, and that's important context for the reader to hold.
Der Puls
- Iyer's exclusion from India's Asia Cup 2025 squad is widely seen as the latest chapter in a reported personal rift with head coach Gautam Gambhir, dating back to their fractious time together at Kolkata Knight Riders.
- Being named India A captain for a red-ball series against Australia A felt to many observers less like an honour and more like a managed sidelining — a way to keep a talented player busy and quiet.
- Rather than publicly confronting the selectors, Iyer chose a podcast to deliver a pointed, if indirect, rebuke: stop caring what others think, redirect that energy inward, and let the daily work speak.
- He acknowledged the roller coaster openly — the rejections, the failures, the real sting of being overlooked — but framed each dip as a lesson rather than an injustice.
- His counsel to younger players is grounded and practical: build a routine, cut the noise, support teammates who get the chances you want, and hold onto grace even when the system feels rigged against you.
When a cricketer of Shreyas Iyer's standing finds himself repeatedly passed over for national selection, the story becomes less about sport and more about the ancient human struggle between what we deserve and what we receive. Sitting before a podcast microphone in September 2025, Iyer offered not a complaint but a philosophy — one forged in the quiet frustration of watching doors close despite consistent performance. His words, aimed at no one and everyone, remind us that the most durable form of defiance is not protest but persistence.
Shreyas Iyer sat down for a podcast conversation and did something that felt both defiant and weary: he talked about not caring what people think. The middle-order batter has spent months watching selection decisions go against him — most recently his exclusion from India's Asia Cup 2025 squad — and somewhere in that accumulation of rejections, he arrived at a philosophy that sounds simple until you try to live it.
The backdrop matters. Reports have circulated that head coach Gautam Gambhir carries a grudge from their time together at Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2024 IPL season, leading to Iyer's repeated omission despite what many considered a strong case for selection. His appointment as India A captain for a red-ball series against Australia A felt less like recognition and more like a consolation prize.
On the IQOO India podcast, Iyer was plain-spoken: "Stop giving a shit about what people think about you. Period." Once that weight lifts, he explained, a player can redirect energy inward — toward improvement, toward the daily work that happens when no one is watching. He framed it not as indifference but as clarity: knowledge is eternal, and no one is ever truly finished becoming better.
He was candid about the journey. There were phases, rejections, failures. The frustration of being overlooked when you believe you deserve selection is real — he acknowledged that directly. Yet he has chosen to channel it into supporting teammates, believing that when the team wins everyone benefits, and maintaining what he called "grace and integrity" even when the system feels unfair.
Read between the lines, Iyer's comments amount to a quiet indictment of a selection process he believes has been shaped by personal politics. He did not name Gambhir. He did not need to. The implication was clear enough: if the system is broken, the only thing a player can control is how they respond — and his response is to keep working, keep learning, and stop waiting for permission to believe in himself.
Shreyas Iyer sat down for a podcast conversation and did something that felt both defiant and weary at once: he talked about not caring what people think. The middle-order batter has spent months watching selection decisions go against him, most recently his exclusion from India's Asia Cup 2025 squad, and somewhere in that accumulation of rejections he arrived at a philosophy that sounds simple until you try to live it.
The backdrop matters. Reports have circulated that Gautam Gambhir, India's head coach, carries a grudge from their time together at Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2024 IPL season. Iyer, a Mumbai-based player who has performed consistently for India, found himself repeatedly left out of squads despite what many observers considered a strong case for selection. When he was named India A captain for an upcoming red-ball series against Australia A, it felt less like recognition and more like a consolation prize—a way to keep him occupied while the senior team moved forward without him.
On the IQOO India podcast "The Qest Talk," Iyer articulated the mental shift that has sustained him through this period. "Stop giving a shit about what people think about you," he said plainly. "Period." Once that weight lifts, he explained, a player can redirect all that energy inward—toward improvement, toward learning, toward the daily work that happens when no one is watching and no one is keeping score. He framed it not as indifference but as clarity: knowledge is eternal, he said, and no individual is ever truly finished becoming better.
But this mindset did not arrive fully formed. Iyer was candid about the journey. There were phases, he said. There were rejections and failures. Life had been a roller coaster, and each dip taught him something. The frustration of being overlooked when you believe you deserve selection is real—he acknowledged that directly. Yet he has chosen to channel that frustration into something else: supporting teammates who are getting the opportunities he wants, believing that when the team wins, everyone benefits, and maintaining what he called "grace and integrity" even when the system feels unfair.
For younger players chasing their own dreams, Iyer offered practical counsel rooted in his own experience. Build a routine. Cut the outside noise. Believe in yourself, especially when others don't. Enjoy the moment you're in rather than fixating on the moment you're being denied. These are not revolutionary ideas, but they carry weight when they come from someone who has lived them under pressure, who has had to choose between bitterness and growth and picked growth.
What Iyer's comments amount to, read between the lines, is a quiet indictment of the selection process and the people running it—a suggestion that personal politics and past grievances have no place in cricket decisions. He did not name Gambhir directly. He did not need to. The implication was clear enough: if the system is broken, the only thing a player can control is how they respond to it. And his response, at least in this moment, is to keep working, keep learning, and stop waiting for permission to believe in himself.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Once you have that mindset, you will keep working on yourself. I keep learning every day. Knowledge is eternal.— Shreyas Iyer, on the IQOO India podcast 'The Qest Talk'
When you know that someone is performing and playing consistently for the team, you support him, and you want the goal to eventually be for the team to win.— Shreyas Iyer, on supporting teammates despite his own non-selection
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