Shreyas Iyer, who had a forgettable tour of South Africa, was not able to perform well during the two test match series in Rainbow Nation. Despite Shreyas Iyer‘s lackluster efforts against South Africa, Sunil Gavaskar believes the selectors will give him a long run in Test cricket.
In the two-test series against the Proteas, Shreyas could muster only 41 runs at a pitiful average of 13.67. He knocked in 31 runs in the opening innings of the first Test, but after being removed for six and a duck in his following two matches, he failed to score in the second innings of the Cape Town Test.
In 12 Tests, Shreyas has scored 707 runs at a respectable average of 39.27. In the three Tests he has played outside of the subcontinent, he has fallen short, scoring just 34 runs in two innings in England prior to the two Tests in South Africa. Shreyas Iyer perhaps needs to play the waiting game and grind the opposition rather than getting into the shell.
You cannot point fingers at just one player- Sunil Gavaskar backs Shreyas Iyer on giving him a long run
The former Indian opener expressed his opinion on Star Sports, saying that Shreyas could not be held completely accountable for India’s poor batting performance in South Africa. He pointed out that the only other visiting players to make a significant impact with the bat were Virat Kohli and KL Rahul.
“Shreyas Iyer is not the only player who failed because it’s not easy for any batter on these pitches. If you see, barring Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, no one else scored too many runs.You cannot point fingers at just one player. So I feel the selection committee will also think that he should probably be given more chances,” said Sunil Gavaskar
In the two-match series, just two Indian players—Kohli (172) and Rahul (113)—accumulated more than 100 runs and averaged more than 20. Out of the six, Shreyas’ average was the second lowest, trailed only by Yashasvi Jaiswal (12.50).
Shreyas Iyer has to work a lot on his defense to score runs on foreign pitches- Sanjay Manjrekar on Shreyas Iyer’s issues over seamer-friendly pitches
In a different Star Sports conversation, Sanjay Manjrekar brought up Shreyas Iyer’s issue with seamer-friendly surfaces. Sanjay Manjrekar highlighted that his problem is with the defense against both full and short deliveries.
“It’s very difficult for him because the problem is with the defense against both full and short deliveries. So, he has to work a lot to score runs on foreign pitches,” said Sanjay Manjrekar.
The former Indian cricket player continued by saying that because Shreyas doesn’t have a solid defense, he has to take risks to score runs, and because of the risky strategy he uses, the middle-order batter is probably not able to be consistent.
“If you don’t have the defense, you have to take risks to score runs and when you take too many risks with a counterattacking approach, you don’t have the consistency,” he added.