Shreyas Iyer has had a mixed start to his Test career. The right-hander made his debut in the longest format in 2021 against New Zealand and scored heavily in the two-match Test series. Although he was not able to cash in on his good performance in the home series against Blackcaps. The kind of start Iyer got prompted the selectors to give him a long rope.
The Reason
One of the reasons Iyer’s performance at the Test level saw a dip was because of his problem against the short ball and his poor defensive technique. Having made his international debut against Sri Lanka in 2017 Iyer’s weakness against the short ball and his inability to rotate the strike against the spinners was evident something which was exploited when India toured Australia in 2020 but he somehow found a way to score. But the story was different in Test cricket.
With the field spread around in white ball cricket, it is competitively easy for Iyer to rotate strike. But as far as Test cricket is concerned fielders are positioned close to the bat and to negate that a batter needs to have a strong defense which is not the case with Iyer. He is a naturally aggressive batter.
Expert’s Corner
That is something that is hampering Iyer’s success in Test cricket where he gets out after getting set. Kevin Pieterson who is in India as a commentator for India’s ongoing five-match Test series against England pointed out just that.
In the words of Pieterson “Listen, when Kohli comes back and other guys come back [KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja] and these are the days these boys are going to look back and go, ‘oh why did I not get a hundred? I had the opportunity to get the hundred’. And when you are sloppy like that, getting out doesn’t impress me at all,” he said.
“You got to grab the game by the scruff of its neck and say I am not letting go here. I am afraid to say with Shreyas it all seems a bit too sloppy. Sloppy is the word.”
Pieterson also questioned Iyer’s approach against English bowlers on Day 1 of the Second Test “When he is facing up to the bowler, he is jogging his leg out to leg side and then comes back to just defend the ball. You go to show some more intent than leg out there.
“If you want to make a go and put pressure on the bowler, this (gestures the leg-side shuffling movement) doesn’t put the pressure on the bowler. It does nothing to the bowler. You got to show more intent,” he said.
Iyer was looking set for a big score before he was dismissed for 27 of 59 balls
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