India’s talented batter Shreyas Iyer started well on June 9, in the first T20I, but the right-hander failed to capitalize on his good start against South Africa at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
Iyer was dismissed for 36 runs off 27 balls by Dwaine Pretorius in the first T20I, where India suffered a 7-wicket defeat at the hands of South Africa. After analyzing Iyer’s performance in the first T20I, former cricketers Wasim Jaffer and Dale Steyn shared a crucial piece of advice for the batter.
Highlighting Iyer’s struggle to score runs against the fast-bowlers, Jaffer and Steyn feel the Indian batter must work out on this aspect of his game to cement his place in the team as well as have any chance to make it to the national squad for the T20 World Cup 2022. They believe that Iyer needs to improve his shot selection against pacers in order to become a better batter.
Wasim Jaffer told ESPNCricinfo: “You kind of know when Shreyas gets stuck, he moves around in the wicket a lot. He goes outside and wants to access the off-side. Otherwise, you won’t see him hitting a lot of boundaries or sixes off the fast bowlers. He did take down Shamsi and then later on Ishan Kishan took on the Keshav Maharaj threat.”
He added, “Look at the future, he needs to develop some shots with which he can dominate the fast bowlers also. He is batting in the top 4, he is not somebody who comes at the backend. So he has to improve his game, especially the boundary hitting against fast bowlers. That innings could have been a little bit better. 10-15 more would have come if he had hit a couple more boundaries in this innings.”
Notably, Iyer looked quite dangerous against spinners, smashing 3 sixes and a boundary but he could score just 13 runs off 17 balls against the pacers in the first T20I against South Africa. Reacting to his struggle, Steyn has also advised Iyer to work on this problem with his head coach Rahul Dravid.
Steyn stated, “Knowing that the World Cup is going to be in Australia this year, he is going to have to combat that, facing lot more seamers than spinners. That said, he has a couple more months to work on that. He is a great player, he will work with Rahul Dravid and figure out how to work out that aspect of his game.”
