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Shreyas Iyer will always play aggressive cricket, no
matter what. In order to be ready for the five-match Test series against
England that begins next week, the Indian batsman returned to the Ranji Trophy
after a five-year hiatus. He warmed up with a run-a-ball score of 48 during
Mumbai’s 10-wicket victory over Andhra at home.
In the one opportunity he had to bat in the first day
of the match, Iyer batted at No. 5, and he was unfazed by the Andhra quicks’
“negative” bowling, which involved going around the wicket and
occasionally pitching it short. Iyer scored up to 75% of his runs on the leg
side by flicking the full deliveries and pulling the short ones.
“I’m going to play attacking irrespective of the
situation,” he said after Mumbai’s win. “And also when you bowl
negative, when you bowl safe and defensive at the start, you want to score runs
and you need to take your team through up to a certain point. So that was my
mindset and that’s why stuck with. Yeah, I was happy [with my knock]
irrespective of the score.
“[As] I said, they were bowling defensive and
they didn’t let me play to my strengths. Even though they started with the
short balls, I was able to execute them for boundaries and get a lot of runs
out of it. Again, they were bowling negative so there was literally no scope
to…other than leaving the ball I couldn’t have done much. I knew that leaving
the ball would, to be honest, bore me. I would rather go and play some strokes.
That’s what I considered at that point of time.”
He plays to his strengths, as evidenced by his strike
rates of 101.27 in ODIs and 136.12 in T20Is. He also follows a similar strategy
in first-class matches, striking at 78.63, but it drops to 65.34 in Tests. Iyer
might play a significant role with his attacking approach against the spinners
if India and England play on turners in the upcoming Test series.
“It wasn’t a turning track, to be honest, he
said. “I’m assuming that we would be getting turning wickets against
England. But other than that, it was just for my match fitness, to stay on the
field as long as possible, that’s what mainly I was focusing on because
especially after my injury it has been tough for me to stick on the outfield
for long. So this was great practice for me.”