Shreyas Iyer was presented his maiden Test cap by Sunil Gavaskar during the opening Test of the two-match series against New Zealand in Kanpur. He has been around in white-ball cricket for quite a while but his Test debut came after four years of his international debut.
Shreyas Iyer was a part of the Indian side the won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2017/18 in India. He replaced an injured Virat Kohli in the squad but couldn’t feature in the playing XI. His father, Santosh, kept his son’s DP on WhatsApp where he is holding Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
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Santosh Iyer had the same DP until Thursday when his son, Shreyas, finally made his Test debut.
“Yeah, this DP (of Shreyas holding Border Gavaskar Trophy) was always close to my heart because when he was playing against Australia, he was a stand-by in place of Virat Kohli, in Dharamshala,” Santosh told PTI.
“So, that time after winning the match, they (team-mates) handed over the trophy to him (Shreyas), just to hold it, so that moment was very prestigious for me.”
Iyer made a memorable debut in Test cricket as he notched up a controlled fifty on day one and remained unbeaten on 75 when the day’s play ended in Kanpur.
Santosh Iyer was happiest after his son’s Test debut was confirmed by Ajinkya Rahane on the eve of the first Test. He believes Test cricket is the real form of cricket.
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“Shreyas holding the (BG) trophy and I literally wanted him to play for India at that moment. And I was thinking on those lines, like when will he get an opportunity to really be in the team and perform in the Test match,” he added.
“So, when Ajinkya Rahane declared that Shreyas is going to play, that was the happiest moment in my life, more than getting selected for any other (format) IPL or one-day, this was very prestigious for me (as) this is a real form of cricket.”
India finished the day 1 at 258/4 with Shreyas Iyer (75) and Ravindra Jadeja (50) being in the middle.
