When the Indian side’s middle-order batter, Shreyas Iyer, enjoyed a great time with the bat in last year’s ODI World Cup 2023 and started his Test career with a century in the longest format of the game, he hardly thought of being dropped from the Test format and losing his BCCI central contract worth INR three crore.
But Shreyas Iyer returned to the Ranji Trophy 2023-24 with a great knock of 95 runs in the final for Mumbai against Vidarbha and later captained the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to end their 12-year drought by winning their first title after a wait of ten years. The biggest issue for the batter is on the back.
In the first first-class matches, which started with the Duleep Trophy 2024 in early September, the batter began with a stretch of four scores of 50 or more in 11 innings that culminated with a Ranji Trophy century against Maharashtra. He clubbed 142 runs in 190 deliveries, shouldering on 12 boundaries and four sixes, with a few coming against the short balls.
Shreyas Iyer is keen to make a Test comeback besides paying attention to the body
In 14 red-ball games, Shreyas Iyer has scored 811 runs at an average of over 36 and a strike rate of more than 60, shouldering on five half-centuries and one century with a best score of 105. The last of these games came against England at the start of this year in Vizag.
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The veteran called the century special before remarking how getting a century after such a long time was such a great feeling for the batter.
“Coming back after a very long time, obviously, I was feeling a bit down with my injuries, but now getting a century after a very long time, it’s a great feeling.” The Mumbai batter expressed at the end of the second day’s play.
“I am keen for a [Test] comeback but, yeah, as we say, control the controllable, and my job is to keep performing and keep participating as much as possible and also see that my body is in the best shape. So I’ll take the best decision possible according to that.” He added in the same interaction.
Shreyas Iyer had back surgery last year, and he went through a phase where he had doubts about how the same issue might be coming back to haunt him. He made a return to the Asia Cup 2023 from the injury layoff before featuring in the home 50-over World Cup, followed by the two Tests in South Africa.
The 29-year-old, however, has erased those doubts from his mind and has improved his capacity a lot more than in the past.
“Not anymore. But there was this phase where I was feeling that it might occur again. But yeah, I trained a lot to see to it that I have optimum fitness and it comes here and there, but now my capacity has improved a lot.” Shreyas Iyer highlighted.
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It was the sixth first-class match in a row in the last six weeks, and the batter has addressed the feeling during the longer format and the things that haven’t gone his way.
“The body has taken a lot of load at the same time. So we have to manage here and there and see to it that I strategize in terms of how I play. Now I have to be smart in terms of what decisions I take, I need to see to it that my body is in the best shape possible.” Shreyas Iyer concluded, potentially hoping to get a place for the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.