Shreyas Iyer has an uphill task ahead of him if he wants to be included in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup to be held in Australia later this year. Iyer hasn’t been in the best of form lately and also had a poor outing in the five-match T20I series against South Africa.
The middle-order batsman managed 94 runs across the series at a below par average of 23.50. Although he handled spinners well, especially in the middle overs, his shot selection left a lot to be desired when facing the pace bowlers.
That is an area of his game that has been regarded as weak for a long time now. On the bouncy and fast pitches of Australia, pace bowlers will be looking to exploit that weakness of his and try to keep him on a tight leash.
Shreyas also had an average IPL campaign recently. Leading Kolkata Knight Riders for the first time, he scored 401 runs in 14 matches at an average of just over 30. He also had a strike rate of 134.56 and was able to make three half-centuries.
Aakash Chopra, on his YouTube channel, mentioned Shreyas Iyer as one of the players who failed to capitalize on their chances during the T20I series against South Africa. He also picked the names of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Axar Patel, and Rishabh Pant in that same list and Iyer was at number 4 for him.
“Last but not the least, my fourth player is Shreyas Iyer. If we talk about a pattern for Pant, there is a pattern here as well, it was there in the IPL also. Fast bowling will come, short-bowling will be done, he will try to hit shots by moving away but you are getting shocks, shocks can happen.”
The cricketer turned commentator went on to reason that the Kolkata Knight Riders captain will struggle for a place in the Indian middle order.
“Once again, you are looking at a very crowded top order. You have Rohit Sharma, Kohli, KL Rahul confirmed. That makes it your three and SKY (Suryakumar Yadav) is confirmed at No. 4. So where will Shreyas Iyer bat? He cannot bat in the top four and I have not even taken Ishan Kishan’s name as of now.”
