Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra reckons Shreyas Iyer’s performances go under the radar ahead of the Champions Trophy clash against New Zealand. Iyer scored a crucial knock of 56 runs in the high-octane clash against Pakistan and added 114 runs with Virat Kohli.
Chopra said Iyer has performed consistently for India in ODIs and he isn’t given enough credit for his performances. The renowned commentator highlighted how Iyer got a place in the Champions Trophy squad after Yashasvi Jaiswal could not get a big score on his ODI debut against England when Virat Kohli had to sit out due to knee soreness.
“We talk less about Shreyas Iyer. Let’s give some respect to the guy because he deserves to be spoken about. His life story is very interesting. Before Virat Kohli got injured in Nagpur, the team had planned to open with Yashasvi Jaiswal alongside Rohit Sharma and that they would play Shubman Gill at No. 4 and Kohli had to play at No. 3,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
While Jaiswal was dismissed after scoring 15 runs, Shreyas Iyer scored 59 off 36 balls in the opening ODI against England.
“Shreyas Iyer wasn’t even featuring in the team. Virat Kohli got injured. So they said they would move Shubman to No. 3 and play Shreyas at No. 4. Interestingly, Shreyas scored runs in that match,” he observed.
“Yashasvi got out in one match and Shubman has been playing well. So as soon as Virat Kohli came, you couldn’t touch Shreyas Iyer. So you kept him at No. 4, Shubman Gill went back to open and Yashasvi was dropped for the Champions Trophy,” the cricketer-turned-commentator added.
The former Delhi player recalled that Shreyas Iyer scored more than 500 runs for India in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
“I feel Shreyas Iyer is under-appreciated at times. He has been scoring runs. He was tested in Tests with bouncers. Then it seemed like it was an obvious weakness and he also got injured after that and went out, but before that, he scored 500 runs in the World Cup he played,” he said in the same video.
“He is the first Indian to score 500 runs while batting at No. 4 in a World Cup edition. However, after that, he was dropped from the team, removed from the list of contracted players, and there were speculations that he wasn’t disciplined. Then he became the captain in the IPL and won the trophy. Things started changing,” Chopra elaborated.
Iyer has scored 2673 runs in 67 ODI matches at an average of 47.73.
