Former Indian pacer S Sreesanth applauded Shreyas Iyer for his stunning shows with the bat in the 2023 World Cup. Saying that the batter was under some pressure heading into the World Cup 2023, Sreesanth praised the team management for backing him completely. Shreyas’ 2023 World Cup campaign got off to a poor start as he was dismissed for a duck against Australia and followed it up with scores of 25*, 53*, 19, 33, and 4. But, in his last four innings, he has been bounced back and registered scores of 82, 77, 128*, and 105. But his century against New Zealand in the semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai was overshadowed to an extent by Virat Kohli’s record 50th one-day hundred as well.

Speaking to Sportskeeda, Sreesanth said, “To be very honest, the way Shreyas Iyer played, lots of respect to him. It is not easy when the focus is on something else. He stood with him [Kohli] and slammed 100 off 67 balls. Iyer has performed like that in two-three matches back-to-back. Ahead of the World Cup, there were some fingers pointed at him. People were asking whether he deserves to be part of the [Indian] batting line-up. Lot of respect to Rahul [Dravid] bhai, Rohit Sharma and the entire team management for continuing with him.”

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However, Shreyas Iyer struck four fours and eight sixes in his 105 off 70 balls, adding 163 runs with Virat Kohli after Shubman Gill retired hurt due to cramps as well. Notably, Kohli is the highest run-getter in the 2023 World Cup, with 711 runs in 10 innings which came at an average of 101.57 and a strike rate of 90.69 as well.

“We were waiting for Kohli’s 50th ton and before that the 48th and the 49th. It was very good to see. Records can be broken, but there were legends present there [at the stadium]. Sachin Tendulkar was there, David Beckham was there and many other celebrities as well. Doing it in front of them, it was so good to see,” S Sreesanth concluded.