Shreyas Iyer played an excellent inning against England in the first T20I on Friday. He scored a 48-ball 67 which helped India post a 124-run total after witnessing a horrible top-order collapse.
India’s total though wasn’t enough to challenge England as the visitors chased down the target with eight wickets and 33 balls in hand.
Shreyas Iyer: Have To Be Flexible With Batting Position
Shreyas Iyer, who usually comes at No 4, batted a position down in the order as the team management decided to promote keeper Rishabh Pant ahead of him. While the wicketkeeper-batsman lost his wicket early after scoring 21, Shreyas Iyer notched up one of his career-best innings in the shortest format of the game.
Addressing the post-match virtual press-conference, Shreyas Iyer spoke about the change in his batting position, stating that a batsman needs to be flexible and needs to be ready to play according to the demands of the situation.
“Coming into the Indian team, you have to be flexible with which batting position you will be batting. I haven’t made any changes, it is just the mindset, what the team requires and batted according to the situation,” Shreyas Iyer said.
“It was a challenging situation, we had to keep playing natural game and keep ticking scoreboard irrespective of losing early wickets.”
“I have been in this situation before, been there in IPL, it is not the first time. I knew I will get odd boundaries, and momentum changes if get a partnership and then batters dominate bowlers, so from that point of view, their bowlers bowled well. It was their day and kudos to them,” Shreyas Iyer added.
Jofra Archer was one of England’s many star performers in the match and did not concede a run from 16 of his 24 deliveries and got the wickets of KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, and Shardul Thakur along the way. He returned with figures of 3/23 and was awarded Man of the Match.
Virat Kohli, who walked in to bat after KL Rahul was dismissed in the 2nd over of the 1st T20I in Ahmedabad on Friday, registered his first-ever consecutive duck in international cricket. In the preceding 4-match Test series, the 32-year-old had departed twice without opening his account. Spinner Adil Rashid, bowling with a new ball, dismissed Virat Kohli after Chris Jordan took a good catch at mid-off.
Shreyas Iyer: India Have Come With A Plan And Have To Execute It As Much As Possible
Shreyas Iyer further mentioned that India will continue to play with more freedom but need to focus on executing the plans properly as they look to tick all the boxes in the run-up to the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Asked if India will need to step away from this new batting philosophy that Kohli spoke about following the team’s eight-wicket loss in the first T20I, Iyer said, “Definitely, it won’t change because if you see the batting line-up we have and the power-hitters down the line, we don’t have to change anything, to be honest.”
“We have come with a plan and we have to execute as much as possible because going into the World Cup we need to see to it that we have ticked all the boxes. This is a five-match series, so it is a perfect time that we try different stuff and see what suits us,” he added.
After India posted 124/7 in stipulated 20 overs with Shreyas Iyer top-scoring with 67, England got off to a promising start scoring 50 runs in the powerplay overs as opposed to India’s 22. England lost 2 quick wickets of Jason Roy (49) and Jos Buttler (28) but Jonny Bairstow (26*) and Dawid Malan (24*) ensured England’s victory without further hiccups. India will face the visitors next on Sunday 14th March.