In Mumbai cricket, a lot of importance is given to the idea, that in response to any criticism, you should let your bat do the talking. Shreyas Iyer, who hails from Mumbai, has also prepared in Sachin Tendulkar’s style. He has demonstrated through a splendid performance in responding to criticisms in Sachin’s manner that he is now completely fit. Just one day before the announcement of the team for the Asia Cup, he played a superb century innings in a practice match, but despite that, questions were raised about his fitness. Now, he has stunned everyone by playing an innings of 199 runs in NCA Bangalore were all the Indian players giving their fitness test. This was a resounding response, especially to suggestions from Ravi Shastri, Sandeep Patil and former players, who were proposing Virat Kohli to bat at number four. So much so that during the team announcement, Rohit Sharma also mentioned to keeping the number four position flexible. Making two centuries within a week means that concerns about his fitness is baseless and doubts have been dispelled. Earlier, Questions were raised about Shreyas that he is a home track bully, but he answered these criticisms reasonably by playing innings of 80 against New Zealand in Auckland and 82 against Bangladesh in Mirpur. Similarly, he played a splendid century against South Africa in Ranchi. Shreyas is naturally an attacking-minded batsman. He believes in building partnerships. Sometimes, you can see him playing shots around the field with Sehwag-like aggression, including cut shots, and at other times, he adapts to Dravid’s role for the team without taking too much time. When wicket’s falls quickly, he can easily understand the situation and adapt the strike rotation mind-set according to team needs. Their biggest strength is turning difficult situations into manageable ones through their cricketing skills. They possess both technique and power in their strokes.
In truth, they are a perfect number four player. Under the guidance of coaches like Praveen Amre, they have strengthened their technical aspects, and now they have started to understand the importance of their wicket, whereas three years ago, they used to play with only an attacking mindset.
At one point in a four-day match, when they played a risky shot in the last over of the day and hit a six, Dravid did not speak to them for the whole day. But now, it’s not like that. They play with maturity under pressure. They understand the intricacies of cricket, so in the future, they could also be considered for captaincy. Shreyas is an excellent player against spin. In the Asia Cup, India’s matches are in Sri Lanka, and the World Cup is in India, where a player who can handle spin exceptionally well will be the most valuable.
The way players like Babar Azam and Virat Kohli struggle to defend against spinners despite reaching the ball on the pitch today, Shreyas excels in this art. Not only that, there is no one better than him in playing cut shots and lofted shots down the ground on the back-foot. He may appear to get stuck against short balls or bouncers, but instead of playing such deliveries cautiously, he approaches them with an attacking mind-set. Whether it’s his debut Test in Kanpur against New Zealand or his recent innings of 82 runs in Mirpur, it seems that he wants to rectify his past mistakes by taking on short-pitched deliveries. It is hoped that he will prove to be a valuable asset for Team India in the Asia Cup and the World Cup.