Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra hailed Shreyas Iyer after the Men in Blue claimed a six-wicket win against Pakistan in the ongoing Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday.
Iyer scored a crucial knock of 56 runs off 67 balls and added 114 runs with Virat Kohli to take India to a shoo-in position in the run-chase of 242. The Mumbai batter got off to a slow start but changed gears after getting settled at the crease.
Iyer had only managed 15 runs against Bangladesh but he brought his best against Pakistan. The right-hander had scored 181 runs in three ODIs against England at an average of 60.33.
Chopra recalled that Iyer was lucky to get a place in India’s final XI in the opening ODI against England at Nagpur as Virat Kohli had a sore knee. Iyer grabbed his chance with both hands as he scored an attacking knock of 59 runs off just 36 balls.
“Shreyas Iyer needs to be spoken about. Let me just rewind. He wasn’t supposed to play the first match against England. He actually owes it to Virat Kohli’s injury. Virat Kohli got injured in Nagpur and because of that, he got a chance to play. Both he and Yashasvi played and it became a straight shoot-out,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
The renowned commentator feels Iyer wouldn’t have been selected for the Champions Trophy if Yashasvi Jaiswal had scored runs on his ODI debut. Jaiswal was dismissed after scoring 15 runs against England and thus he was replaced by Varun Chakravarthy in the final squad.
“If Yashasvi had scored runs in that match and he hadn’t, he might not have been in Dubai. He might have been sitting at home and watching this match. Yashasvi got out there, he scored runs, Kohli came back in the next match, suddenly the team’s mindset changed, and Yashasvi is not part of the Champions Trophy. It could have been Shreyas Iyer,” he observed.
Chopra hailed Iyer for his game against the spinners. The 30-year-old was able to rotate strike at regular intervals in the middle overs.
“There are two or three very important things in his game. Firstly, there is no doubt that he plays spin extremely well. There was only one way to get stuck in this match, and that was to lose back-to-back wickets. As soon as Shubman Gill got out, he came to bat and didn’t let the next wicket fall,” he said.
The former Delhi player also praised Shreyas Iyer for working on his previous kryptonite of facing the short balls.
“The fast bowlers were bowling bouncers and his game against the bouncer has changed. He is also leaving a few deliveries. He takes on the bouncers once in a while and hits over midwicket when he does that, which means he has the time. We just see the final product. It takes hours and thousands of balls to rectify your weakness,” Chopra observed.
India will next take on New Zealand at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on 2nd March.
