5 players who could have replaced Murali Vijay instead of Shikhar Dhawan

#4 Shreyas Iyer

Forever the bridesmaid, never the bride, has been the story of Shreyas Iyer. The Mumbai batsman has been in scintillating form in the domestic circuit for the past few years and yet he has failed to make his international debut. This time around, he didn't even feature in the squad for the Sri Lanka series and has been overlooked once again after Vijay's injury.

He was brought in as a replacement for Virat Kohli for the final Test against Australia and although he didn't play, the fact that he was on the fringes of the side, makes his exclusion all the more surprising.

Although he isn't an opener, the fact that India already have a reserve opener in Abhinav Mukund means that they could have gone with the middle-order batsman especially with the away tours coming up in the next 18 months. Karun Nair's poor form led to his exclusion but despite sparkling domestic form, the youngster hasn't got his chance just yet.

Forever warming the benches, Iyer deserves a go sooner rather than later. While the likes of Rohit Sharma have walked back into the Test squad despite injury forcing him out for a while, it is unfair to keep the 22-year-old batsman waiting for too much longer.