India’s middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer on Friday (November 26) said he was not expecting the legendary Sunil Gavaskar to hand him the Test debut cap.
Iyer made his red-ball debut in the ongoing Kanpur Test against New Zealand, and he received the cap from Gavaskar ahead of the start of the opening day’s play on Thursday (November 25).
It turned out to be a dream debut for Shreyas Iyer as he slammed his maiden Test ton in India’s first innings. The right-hander scored 105 to power the hosts to 345/10 in the first essay.
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"I obviously thought Rahul Dravid sir will present me with the debut Test cap, I was not expecting to receive it from Sunil Gavaskar Sir. Both are legends of the game, either of them would have given me the cap, I would have been happy. It is a great feeling the way everything panned out but not satisfied with the way I got out," Iyer said during a virtual press conference after the second day’s play in Kanpur, as quoted by ANI.
Recalling Gavaskar’s words while presenting the cap, Shreyas said: "See, Sunil Gavaskar sir when he gave me the cap, he told me one important point -- you do not have to think about your past and future, all you have is the present and focus on the next ball. I am just looking at the present, whatever happens, happens for the best. I will take everything in my stride."
Talking about the impact of MS Dhoni, Shreyas said: "Mahi Bhai and I spoke about IPL when I was doing rehab and I went in to play football with Bollywood friends. I mean you know he is really calm and composed. Whenever you go for a chat, he has so much experience, it is always fun to chat with him."
The visitors scored 129/0 till stumps on Day 2, still trailing India by 216 runs. Kiwi openers did a fine job with the bat, with Will Young (75*) and Tom Latham (50*) scoring unbeaten half-centuries.
"Well, it is going to be a challenging day for us tomorrow with them getting off to a really good start. The wicket is not really helping the bowlers, we need to focus more on our areas and try to give fewer runs as much as possible, and try to build more pressure. One wicket will completely change the complexion of the game, once the ball starts to spin or some cracks develop on the wicket, it would shift the momentum," Shreyas Iyer said.
(With ANI inputs)
