India batter Shreyas Iyer is expected to make his much-awaited return to ODIs in the upcoming series against New Zealand that will commence from January 11. He has been out of action since October, 2025 when he suffered an injury to his rib-cage during the third and final ODI of India's series against Australia. His situation became serious at one stage and he was even admitted to the ICU due to excessive bleeding.
Iyer impresses in Vijay Hazare Trophy
BCCI had later confirmed that the 31-year-old had suffered a lacertation of the spleen. He had began the rehabilitation process after being discharged from the hospital. Iyer recently made his return to competitive cricket and smashed 82 runs in Mumbai's clash against Himachal Pradesh, following that up with a knock of 45 against Punjab. He now looks ready to make his return to international cricket.
Iyer will have the opportunity to break a remarkable ODI record if he plays in the series opener against New Zealand in Vadodara. He is just 83 runs away from reaching the 3000-run mark in the format. The batter will become the fastest Indian player to reach the milestone if he ends up crossing the mark in any match of the upcoming assignment. The record is currently held by Shikhar Dhawan, who reached the mark after 72 innings while Iyer has so far played 67 innings.
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Fastest Indian batters to score 3000 runs in ODIs -
1. Shikhar Dhawan - 72 innings
2. Virat Kohli - 75 innings
3. KL Rahul - 78 innings
4. Navjot Singh Sidhu - 79 innings
5. Sourav Ganguly - 82 innings
Iyer's record in ODIs
Iyer has so far scored a total of 2917 runs in 73 ODIs. He has got 23 half-centuries and 5 centuries under his name alongwith a blistering average of 47.81. He will be looking to maintain his stunning ODI record and score many more runs against New Zealand. It remains to be seen if he gets picked in India's playing XI for the first match or not.
India's squad for New Zealand ODI series: Shubman Gill (c), Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja