Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell feels Shreyas Iyer is a bit of a panicker and he is not a very good player of spin. Iyer could not play the first Test match at Nagpur due to a back injury but he has failed to deliver the goods in the three innings he has played against Australia in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series.
The right-hander from Mumbai was dismissed for a duck in the first innings of the third Test match at Indore. Iyer was looking to cut the ball against Matthew Kuhnemann but chopped the ball back onto the stumps.
Moreover, Iyer returned with scores of 4 and 12 in the two innings of the Delhi Test. The right-hander was dismissed while trying to play the big shot in the second innings.
On the other hand, Cheteshwar Pujara has also failed to make an impact in the series as he was dismissed for a solitary run in the first innings of the Indore Test.
“Cheteshwar Pujara is very jumpy. I think right through the series he has been very jumpy. I keep hearing that Shreyas Iyer is a very good player of spin bowling, but I haven’t seen it yet, and I’m not convinced that he is. To me, he is a bit of a panicker,” Ian Chappell said while speaking to ESPNcricinfo after stumps on Day 1 of the Indore Test.
Chappelli, as he is famously known, added that the Indian batters batted like Australian batters in the first innings of the Indore Test after they were skittled out for a paltry score of 109 runs.
“There are some players in the Indian side that haven’t convinced me that they’re good players of spin bowling. I thought that the Australians spooked India early on. A couple of things happened with the pitch. The Australian spinners bowled very accurately. But what we saw was Australian-type batting from the Indians,” Chappell added.
Meanwhile, Australia were able to put their noses ahead after the end of the first day. Usman Khawaja top-scored with 60 runs as he added 96 runs with Marnus Labuschagne. Australia was 156-4 at the end of the opening day and had a lead of 47 runs. The tourists were able to outplay the hosts on the first day.
“When Australia batted, particularly [Usman] Khawaja, he was very good. [Marnus] Labuschagne had a good partnership with him. There was more of the Rohit Sharma batting when he got the century in Australia’s innings. To me, it was Australia who outplayed India and definitely deserved to have the lead,” said the former Aussie captain.
