Veteran India cricketer Harbhajan Singh finds Shreyas Iyer an ideal replacement for the out-of-form batter Ajinkya Rahane in the Test side. Rahane has been struggling with the bat lately and his spot in the playing eleven is under the scanner.

Iyer, who was included in the side after KL Rahul's injury, scored a hundred in his debut Test match against New Zealand. He became the 16th Indian batter to make a hundred on his Test debut.

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Harbhajan believes Iyer is “ready to fill the slot” on the upcoming tour of South Africa. “Shreyas Iyer batted brilliantly in the last game and showed his talent. And I am so happy that he made the most of the opportunity in the middle order," he said.

Rahane played 12 matches this year and scored 411 runs in 21 innings with an average of 19.57. With no hundred and only two half-centuries, his highest score is 67 runs.

"Meanwhile, Ajinkya Rahane is not scoring runs. Going forward, Iyer could be India's perfect solution. Don't know if Rahane will be a part of the India squad for the South Africa series but Iyer, I feel, has made his case as a middle-order option. It will be interesting when the selection happens,” he added.

BCCI has postponed the South Africa tour by a few days, which was scheduled to start from December 17 onwards. The tour will now begin on December 26 and it includes three Tests and as many ODIs, however, the four T20Is part of the original fixture will now be rescheduled to some other time.