Shreyas Iyer revealed MS Dhoni played a major role in helping him recover from injury and return to his best. He also disclosed playing football with friends from the film industry helped him in his comeback.
In March this year, Shreyas Iyer’s world was thrown upside down as he suffered a devastating shoulder injury during the first ODI between India and England in Pune. Shreyas Iyer was forced to undergo surgery which meant he had to be out of action for almost six months.
Shreyas Iyer Missed IPL 2021’s First Indian Leg But Returned In UAE Leg And Was Part Of The Reserves In 2021 T20I WC Squad
In the meantime, he was forced to miss the first leg of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) and eventually lost his Delhi Capitals (DC) captaincy to Rishabh Pant. As a result, from being a leading contender to being part of India’s 2021 T20 World Cup squad, Shreyas Iyer could only make the reserves as the injury starved him of valuable game-time before the selection for the marquee event.
Shreyas Iyer dislocated his shoulder while fielding against England in the first ODI in Pune on March 24. He had to leave the field right away and later underwent surgery that kept him away from the first session of the 14th edition of IPL before the tournament was suspended midway due to the breakout of Covid-19 inside the bio-bubble.
However, Shreyas Iyer has shown his character by making his Test debut in the same year and beginning his international career in the longest format of the game by scoring a century. On Friday, Shreyas Iyer became just the 16th Indian ever to score a century on Test debut.
Shreyas Iyer Credited Mentor For T20I WC MS Dhoni For Helping Him By Having ‘Fun Chats’ With Him
Shreyas Iyer credited former Indian captain MS Dhoni for helping him through the recovery period. During rehab, the former DC skipper revealed he had some ‘fun chats’ with the 2011 World Cup-winning captain.
Talking in a press conference, Iyer said, “Mahi Bhai was there and we spoke a little bit about IPL at that point of time, never discussed winning the IPL (chuckles). You know he is really calm and composed, whenever you for a chat, he’s got so much so experience in the IPL and different forms of the game, so it’s always fun to chat with him.”
The 26-year-old also revealed that playing football with friends from the Indian film industry (Bollywood) helped him maintain his competitive spirit and maintain his fitness levels.
“It didn’t switch me off completely because my focus was more on cricket rather than playing football. But I really love going out there and trying different sports – whether it be table tennis or badminton, but football is something I’ve been playing since my school days. And when I went and played with my Bollywood friends over there, they were very competitive and they were friendly at the same time,” said Iyer.
He added, “So it was a good mixture, and also I wanted to get into that competitive zone and see it to that my fitness level was pretty intact. Because you keep running 90 minutes and it’s about how your stamina pans out throughout the game.”
After a long hiatus, Shreyas Iyer made his comeback during the second leg of IPL 2021 in the UAE (scoring 175 runs in 8 games averaging 35). After missing out on India’s main 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup (he was named in the reserves), Shreyas Iyer returned to play for India in the three-match T20I series against New Zealand he played all three games.
With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli resting and KL Rahul suffering from an injury, Shreyas Iyer got a chance to make his debut in the first Test against New Zealand in Kanpur. He took the opportunity with both hands by scoring a brilliant knock of 105 under pressure.
Shreyas Iyer, on his debut, scored a century for India against the defending World Test Champions New Zealand, batting at No.5. He scored 105 before being dismissed by Tim Southee. His runs came off 171 balls after smashing 2 sixes and 13 boundaries. Among those to score a century on Test debut for India are the likes of Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Prithvi Shaw.
Shreyas Iyer has featured in 22 ODIs and 32 T20Is and averaged 42.78 and 27.61 in the two formats, respectively, before making his Test debut, 4 years after his limited-overs debut in 2017.