Shreyas Iyer has a special message from the India Cricket Team management with the IND vs ENG Test series starting on Jan 25: Attack. That’s Shreyas Iyer’s only plan irrespective of the situation. And he has had a demo in the Ranji Trophy 2024 scoring 48 off 48 against Andhra on return to the tournament after five years. One might wonder why a No 5 batter is suddenly aggressive. Well, that’s exactly what Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma want from him in India vs England Test series.
“I am going to play attacking irrespective of the situation. When you bowl negative when you bowl safe and defensive at the start, what can you do. You want to score runs and you need to take your team through up to a certain point. That was my mindset and that’s what I stuck with. I was happy with the performance irrespective of the score,” Shreyas Iyer told Cricbuzz on the sidelines of the Mumbai vs Andhra Ranji Trophy match.
The reason why Shreyas Iyer is missing the IND vs AFG T20 series is because the BCCI Selection Committee wants him to focus on the Test. The Ranji Trophy 2024 was the perfect platform for him to get back and polish some of his skills and return for the IND vs ENG Test series.
Despite showing promise in the SA vs IND series, Shreyas Iyer failed to make any impact with scores of 31, 6, 0 and 4. But at home, Iyer is a different beast. With three half-centuries and a century in 11 innings, he certainly has the skills to play match-winning knocks. And that’s what he is focussing on.
Shreyas Iyer 2.0 in IND vs ENG Test?
At home, Iyer has the license to kill: take down England’s attack with aggressive batting. He tried to do that against Andhra before edging a Nithish Reddy delivery.
But he did not mind much. He went back to the nets and continued to plunder the net bowlers and throwdowns as if he were preparing for a red-ball IPL.
With no Ajinkya Rahane around, Shreyas Iyer has a chance to cement his spot at No 5 ahead of the Australia tour at the end of the year. And nothing could be better than getting the runs at home to make a statement.
While the pitch at the BKC Stadium was not really a turning track, Shreyas Iyer did not mind. He is happy with the match practice as it tested his fitness. India will get turning tracks to bat on and Iyer would ideally want to get such tracks to practice on.
“Well, it wasn’t a turning track, to be honest. But other than that it was just for my match fitness to stay on the field as long as possible. That’s what mainly I was focusing on because especially after my injury, it has been tough for me to stick on the wicket and on the outfield for long. So this was a great practice for me after five years,” Iyer said.
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