Veteran India cricketer Dinesh Karthik believes that despite their poor shows in the first India-New Zealand T20I, Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer won’t be “judged” or insecure in the dressing room under the leadership of Rohit Sharma and the guidance of Rahul Dravid – the newly appointed T20 captain and coach duo respectively.

While chasing 165 in Jaipur, India started well with both KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma and later on Suryakumar Yadav. But when Sharma (48) and Yadav (62) got out in quick succession, the pressure made things worse. Shreyas Iyer (5 off 8) struggled with his timing as well as the debutant Venkatesh Iyer, who although hit a boundary off his first ball, got out on the next. However, Rishabh Pant (17*) kept his cool and sealed the deal in the final over.

And, while speaking to Cricbuzz after the match, Dinesh Karthik has said that both Sharma and Dravid have faced a lot of failure in their careers so they won’t let affect Shreyas and Venkatesh’s confidence just for one poor show.

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Dinesh Karthik said: “Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer, the middle-order batsmen that didn’t look as good as they would have if they had played a long innings, won’t feel so judged in this dressing room. Both the coach and the captain have seen a lot of failures and that is the biggest advantage these boys will have in the dressing room. They’ll feel rather calm and they’ll know it’s just one game… Sometimes you can feel judged and you question that ‘Am I good enough for this level?’ I think those questions won’t be the ones they’ll answer so early. It will be a very calm and easygoing dressing room.”

Dinesh Karthik even backed Shreyas Iyer for his innings, citing that he didn’t have a choice but to attack every ball, but it didn’t work out. Notably, Iyer returned after a long injury-forced break. Venkatesh Iyer, meanwhile, batted at No.6 – which was a rather new slot for him. However, they are expected to get a long rope to seal their place in the team as well. The second T20I will take place on Friday in Ranchi.

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“You can’t fault Shreyas Iyer for doing it because at that stage you want boundaries. If it’s not there to be hit then you probably try and hit a cut shot, a flick shot, or a cover drive but your first instinct is to hit it for a six straight over the bowler’s head or over deep mid-wicket… If you have to go by results you can fault Surya or Rohit but if you go by process I think all of them played the right shots…,” Dinesh Karthik concluded.