Shreyas Iyer played an important knock that could just extend his time in the T20I setup. Coming in at 3 Shreyas Iyer‘s knock of 53 runs helped India post a decent total on the board. With India playing just 6 more T20Is before the mega event this knock will help him gain some confidence as Team India still cannot find a balanced and settled team. With a lot of talent available in their ranks and many players waiting on the sidelines, every game and every opportunity is going to be important and the players should try to make the most of it.
Coming to this match Shreyas walked into the crease at the end of 4th with 33 on the board. He started his innings with a boundary but slowed down with wickets falling around him. With the likes of Gaikwad and Surya getting out early, Iyer took the responsibility of anchoring the Indian innings. He punished the bad balls and kept rotating the strike maintaining a good strike rate.
Iyer built good partnerships with Jitesh and Axar who chipped in with handy knocks and kept India on track to get a winning total. Iyer played his shots in the partnership with Jitesh but once he got out, Iyer took the responsibility of taking the innings deep and played second fiddle with Axar. He completed his fifty with a six and a four in the final over and got out on the next ball. India finished with 160 on the board and the Indian bowlers did the rest as they restricted the Aussie batsmen to 154 to win the series 4-1.
T20 World Cup spots up for grabs
With the T20 World Cup spots up for grabs India is facing a problem of plenty. As of now, it looks like Rohit, Virat, and Surya are sure starters, and for the remaining spots, there is stiff competition. Gill, Jaiswal, Gaikwad, and Kishan are in contention for a spot at the top, and Iyer, Tilak, Rinku, and Jitesh are front runners for the other spot with Dube still having an outside chance.
In the upcoming tour of South Africa and the series against Afghanistan, India would love to solve these problems. Also, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant will try and make their point during this IPL as the former is currently not considered for the T20I setup and the other is making a return to cricket after 1 and a half years after that major accident he had in Jan 2023. And the performance in IPL this season could directly earn them a spot in the WC squad.
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