India's no.4 batter Shreyas Iyer broke the shackles at Wankhede Stadium with a 56-ball 82 against Sri Lanka to help India post 357/8 on the board. With an explosive knock, Iyer also answered his critics as many suggested that he should warm the benches when Hardik Pandya comes back into the side. Before facing Sri Lanka, he was seen practising against the short ball during the optional practice session as well. After India's 302-run win, Iyer turned up for the post-match press conference and was irked by a journalist’s question about his troubles against the short ball.
“When you say it’s a problem for me, what do you mean?” Iyer asked the journalist.
The journalist tried to reframe his question and said, “Not a problem exactly, but it’s troubled you”.
Iyer was not happy with the rephrasing either and said, “Troubled me?”
He continued, “Have you seen how many pull shots I’ve scored, especially that have gone for four? If you’re trying to hit a ball, you’re bound to get out anyway, irrespective of if it’s a short ball, if it’s overpitched. If I get bowled two or three times, you all would say, ‘he can’t play an inswinging ball, he can’t play a cut if the ball is seaming’.”
“We as players, we are bound to get out on any sort of deliveries. You guys have created that mahaul [atmosphere] outside that ‘he can’t play a short ball’, and I feel that people are picking that up every now and then and it plays on your [the media’s] mind regularly, and you keep working on that.”
Iyer also said that playing at his homeground helped him fine-tune his skills against the short ball.
“Coming from Mumbai, especially from Wankhede where the bounce is pretty much even, here it bounces way more than any other pitches,” the 28-year-old said.
“I’ve played the majority of my games here, so I know how to tackle it. It’s just that when I go to hit some shots you are bound to get out and sometimes it may work, sometimes it may not, and majority of the times it hasn’t worked for me, maybe that’s the reason you think it’s a problem for me, but in my mind I know there’s no problem.”
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