Legendary Sunil Gavaskar wants Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee to back under-fire Shreyas Iyer in Test matches despite his low returns on the recent tour of South Africa. Iyer could only manage 41 runs in two Test matches against the Proteas and thus failed to deliver the goods in tough conditions.

However, Gavaskar noted that barring KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, none of the other Indian batters could score runs against South Africa and thus it is not fair to only blame Iyer.

Iyer has scored 707 runs in 12 Test matches at an average of 39.28, including five fifties and one century.

While speaking to Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar said, “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.”

While Virat Kohli scored 170 runs in the two Test matches, Rahul amassed 113 runs against the Proteas and they were only two Indian batters to aggregate more than 100 runs in the series.

On the other hand, former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar added Iyer’s problem is his defense against both full and short deliveries.

He said, “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.”

“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.”

India will next take on Afghanistan in three-match T20I series.