Former England captain Nasser Hussain lauded Shreyas Iyer’s attacking batting approach, saying that the right-handed batter played for the team in their ODI World Cup 2023 match against Sri Lanka at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
The 28-year-old Iyer, who hadn’t had the great tournament before this game, was in an attacking mood against Sri Lankan bowlers and scored 82 runs off 56 balls, with three boundaries and six sixes and helped India post 357 for 8 in 50 overs.
According to Hussain, Shreyas did not try to score runs for himself despite calls for him to be dropped.
Some people have been saying that he should be dropped since Suryakumar scored 49 against England. In that case, many players would just play for themselves and get a 40 odd off as many balls. But he didn’t, he was the finisher,” the noted commentator told Star Sports.
“He was smashing it everywhere. He played for the team. He looks to get into better positions when he’s attacking the bowler. I think he needs to have a very attacking mindset like he did today,” he added.
During his attacking knock, Iyer also became the joint 12th fastest batter to score 2000 runs in ODI cricket, along with West Indies’ Gordon Greenidge, England’s Jonny Bairstow, Scotland’s Kyle Coetzer and Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman.
Before Iyer came to bat, it was Shubman Gill (92 off 92) and Virat Kohli (88 off 94) who stitched a crucial 189 stand for the second wicket after losing the wicket of skipper Rohit Sharma in the second ball of the innings.
Earlier, Sri Lanka skipper Kusal Mendis won the toss and opted to bat first against hosts India. The 1996 World Cup winners Sri Lanka made one change in their playing XI as Dushan Hemantha came in for Dhananjaya de Silva.
On the other hand, the Rohit Sharma led Indian team has not changed the winning combination.
Playing XIs:
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis(w/c), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Angelo Mathews, Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Dushmantha Chameera, Dilshan Madushanka