India white-ball captain Rohit Sharma has explained the reason why Shreyas Iyer couldn’t make it into the final XI in the first match of the T20 series. Shreyas Iyer missed out on the first two ODIs against West Indies as he was tested positive for Covid-19 along with Shikhar Dhawan and Ruturaj Gaikwad. As he made a comeback in the 3rd ODI, he scored a match-winning knock of 80 which helped India to clean sweep the ODI series.
Shreyas Iyer scored 80 in the final ODI against West Indies
However, he couldn’t get into the XI in the first T20I as Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer were preferred for the no.5 and 6 slot though both of them proved the selection as they played a good cameo to take the team home from a tricky position.
However, Rohit Sharma explained the reason for not picking Shreyas Iyer as he wanted a 6th bowling option in form of Venkatesh Iyer. Venkatesh Iyer bowled one over and conceded only 4 runs.
“Someone like Shreyas Iyer is sitting out, very hard on him not making it to playing eleven, but we needed someone to bowl in the middle which is why we couldn’t get him in. It’s always nice with that kind of competition going around and a lot of the guys are missing out as well.
“I’m happy to have that kind of challenges rather than not having players available and not in form. We were very clear with Shreyas and we told him we want that option going into the World Cup.
“Guys do understand what the team wants and all these guys are professionals and they do understand that team comes first,” Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation.
Venkatesh Iyer made his T20I debut last year against New Zealand and since then he has played all 4 T20I matches for India. However, he lost his place in the ODI squad.
“Once everyone is available it’s something we need to sit down and understand. Lots of things to take into consideration and sometimes it can be very tough on the guys missing out, but we want to make sure that we give out a clear message with guys performing needs to get that run and we want to put the team first,” Rohit Sharma explained.