Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar wants Indian selectors to give Indian middle order Shreyas Iyer more chances in red-ball cricket despite his poor performances against South Africa. The 29-year-old struggled to get going in unfamiliar conditions against the quality Proteas bowling attack.
In the first Test against South Africa, Shreyas Iyer struggled with the bat, scoring 31 and six runs in two innings. The middle-order batter departed for a duck, in the 1st innings of the second test as he was caught behind by Kyle Verreynne off Nandre Burger’s bowling.
Speaking on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar feels that Shreyas Iyer cannot be blamed completely for India’s poor batting efforts in South Africa and believes that Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were the only visiting players who contributed significantly with the bat. Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shreyas Iyer failed to make an impact for the team.
“Shreyas Iyer is not the only player who failed because it’s not easy for any batter on these pitches. If you see, barring Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, no one else scored too many runs. You cannot point fingers at just one player. So I feel the selection committee will also think that he should probably be given more chances,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
Shreyas Iyer has been nearly unstoppable after returning from a long-term back injury just before the 2023 World Cup. The Right-handed batter has shown the talent to thrive in all three forms and worked hard to improve his weaknesses, however failed to contribute with the bat for the team against South Africa.
Shreyas Iyer Has To Work A Lot To Score Runs On Foreign Pitches – Sanjay Manjrekar
Sanjay Manjrekar underlined Shreyas Iyer’s susceptibility on seamer-friendly conditions, adding that the middle-order batter is likely to lack consistency due to the risky approach he is forced to take, due to the lack of defence to his game.
“It’s very difficult for him because the problem is with the defence against both full and short deliveries. So, he has to work a lot to score runs on foreign pitches.
“If you don’t have the defence, you have to take risks to score runs and when you take too many risks with a counterattacking approach, you don’t have the consistency,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.
Shreyas Iyer has scored 707 runs in 12 Tests at a decent 39.27 average. However, short cricketing career, he has been judged wanting in SENA countries and would be keen on putting the past performance behind to come good for the team in the five-match test series against England.
