Team India batsman Shreyas Iyer recalled his favorite knock from the ODI World Cup 2023, ahead of the Men in Blue’s return to the format. The middle-order player has been chosen in the ODI team that will take on England in a three-match series, before competing in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Iyer chose his half-century against Sri Lanka in the league stage at the Wankhede Stadium as his favorite knock of the entire tournament. The right-handed batsman had scored at a strike rate of 146.63, smashing six sixes to help India post a dominant total of 357-8 on the board.
In response, Sri Lanka were bowled out for a paltry 55, giving India a 302-run victory as they continued their winning streak during the campaign.
Iyer revealed that the knock was crucial as there was pressure on him to maintain his place in the playing XI.
“82 against Sri Lanka. Because there was a lot of talk about me being removed from the team and that I wasn’t contributing much to the team. Even though I had scored a 50 against Pakistan, there were some conversations that put me in a difficult situation. That kind of (conversation) fueled my instincts from within,” Iyer said during Idea Exchange (via The Indian Express).
Iyer had endured a poor first half of the World Cup, starting with a three-ball duck against Australia. He came back strong to register two fifties and two hundreds in the last four matches of the league phase. The batsman finished with 530 runs at an average of 66.25.
Iyer further added that criticism from outside can be “irritating” at times.
“It is irritating, especially when it comes from people who have not faced 150 km per hour, who advise you to play in a particular way. But I would say that it is their opinion. They have every right to speak, but they can speak among themselves and not directly with the player,” Iyer added.
The batsman has been constantly plagued with questions about his problems against the short ball. He had lashed out at a journalist for the same during a press conference, right after the aforementioned knock against Sri Lanka in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
“The hardest phase was my back injury” – Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer faced a chronic back problem, which caused him to get injured regularly. Since this inconsistency affected his form and threatened his place in the Indian team in the long run, he opted to undergo surgery for the same.
He underwent surgery in April 2023 after an injury during the Border-Gavaskar series, causing him to miss the entire Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign and the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
“The hardest phase was my back injury. When I had the surgery, I thought this was going to completely change my body. And it was a little difficult to get back to the same area and agility that I had before the surgery. After one year “Now I feel very comfortable and strong that I can do basically what I intended before the surgery,” Iyer said (according to the aforementioned source).
Iyer finally returned in the 2023 Asia Cup and had a prolific career after that.
Edited by Nihal