Three years ago in 2021, Shreyas Iyer got his Test career off to a promising start as he scored a century in his very first game versus New Zealand in the city of Kanpur.
Many Cricketing experts destined the Mumbai batter for greatness but the longest format of the game has not been kind to him ever since his debut in 2021.
With his weakness against short-pitched balls getting exposed to all the Cricket Playing Nations early on in his career, bowlers took full advantage of this and as a result, the right handed batter struggled to perform well in overseas conditions.
What proved to be even more worrying is that Iyer’s Test Cricket numbers as a batter started to decline even in India.
Shreyas managed to score just 146 runs with his bat in eight innings in the last two years in home conditions, which is not a good performance at all when you consider how well he has performed in other formats.
After a string of poor performances, the Indian Cricket Team’s selectors eventually ran out of patience with Shreyas Iyer and he got dropped from the team after the end of the second test match versus England earlier this year.
Iyer’s negligence of not playing Domestic Cricket made matters even more worse for him as the BCCI stripped him off of his central contract.
Things were not looking good and the Mumbai born batter desperately wanted to make things right and make a strong comeback to the Indian Cricket Team.
This year’s Duleep Trophy offered the 29-year-old a chance to make a strong statement and get picked in India’s squad for the Bangladesh series. However, the right handed batter failed to make use of his opportunities, scoring just 104 runs in four innings for India D, which consisted of a four ball duck and one fifty.
Following Shreyas Iyer’s Duleep Trophy fiasco, a BCCI official gave a tough and scathing statement in an interview with the Telegraph, crushing all of Iyer’s aspirations of returning to the test-team of Indian Cricket.
“At present, there’s no space for him (Shreyas Iyer) to be a part of the test squad. Who’s place will he take in the team? His shot-selection has been a concerning point in this year’s Duleep Trophy, especially on Sunday. He (Iyer) was settled at the crease and then all of a sudden he played a really poor shot off the bowling of slow left-arm orthodox bowler Shams Mulani. When you are set at the crease and you’re batting on a flat surface as well, you have to utilise such chances,” the official said.
“Currently, our batting unit is currently highly stable, and there are no open spaces for him to join the test squad. Whose place will he take in the team? His shot-selection has been a concerning point in this year’s Duleep Trophy, especially on Sunday. He (Iyer) was settled at the crease and then all of a sudden he played a really poor shot off the bowling of slow left-arm orthodox bowler Shams Mulani. When you are set at the crease and you’re batting on a flat surface as well, you have to utilise such chances,” the official said.
Shreyas still has a chance to get some runs under his belt in the upcoming third and final phase of the 2024 Duleep Trophy later in the current week and then he will also get an opportunity to play in the Irani Cup, where he is guaranteed to be a part of the Mumbai squad.
He is also very likely to get picked in India’s Twenty-Twenty squad for the T20 International series versus Bangladesh, followed by the next season of Ranji Trophy.
However, another official of the BCCI told National-Daily that even if Iyer manages to find his lost form, he still won’t be considered for the tour of Australia.
“He (Shreyas Iyer) could play for Mumbai in the upcoming Irani Cup which commences from the first of October in the city of Lucknow. Even if he’s picked for the Bangladesh Twenty-Twenty International series, which begins from the 6th of October, he can still play in the Irani Cup and then make himself available for selection from the second T20 International onwards.
“With one round of Duleep Trophy still left to be played, he might end up scoring a century there. He mainly needs to get some runs under his belt. He will surely play in this year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to his weakness against the short-pitched balls, but you still can’t ignore his runs in home conditions.” the other BCCI-Official added.
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For more information, visit the official website of the Telegraph
