On Monday, Indian selection committee has included Shreyas Iyer and Mohammed Siraj for the T20I series against New Zealand. The inclusion of Shreyas for the 3-match series against the Blackcaps seemed a reward of the Mumbai lad as he has been scoring on a consistent basis for the India ‘A’ team against visiting teams.
Despite the fact that the national selectors had earlier ignored his run-scoring spree, Shreyas used it as a temptation to keep performing consistently. Shreyas spoke to CricketNext ahead of the opening game between Board President’s XI and New Zealand and said that he already felt that he was part of the national squad.
Describing his feeling, Iyer said, “I feel like I am very much part of the team. The team has some quality batsmen at present, but I know my time will come and I just need to be patient and score runs consistently. I am not someone who believes in getting into other people’s space. I like doing my own job and the interactions that I have had with the members of the senior team has been more about trying to learn from them and not about my position in the pecking order.”
In recent times, fitness has become a top priority in the Indian cricketing set-up and even Shreyas also reckons that fitness plays a crucial role in a cricketer’s game as batting, bowling, and fielding. He said, “I think fitness is of prime importance and try and work on my own fitness whenever I am not playing out in the middle. I feel that with the rigours of international cricket at present, staying fit is very important if you wish to succeed in all the three formats. It always helps when you have a role model like skipper Kohli to look upto.”
Even sometimes, critics went on to say that if Shreyas has played for a more successful IPL team then he could have risen through the ranks faster. But he feels the other way around, he said, “While I would not like to contradict anyone, I like to look at this team as one which has given me a lot of opportunities over the years. For me, the platform and opportunity is more important than anything. I have been given the freedom to go out and express myself and that is very important for me.”
Since the last couple of years, Shreyas has been hitting the ball really well and it could be the perfect moment for the Indian team management to try him as the likes of Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav have been failing despite giving more than sufficient opportunities. With the 2019 World Cup around the corner, captain Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri would definitely want to find the perfect middle-order bat.
