R Sridhar Recalls Ravi Shastri's Response When Shreyas Iyer Was Out Due To A Short Ball During The 2018 South Africa Tour

R Sridhar, a former fielding coach for Team India, has related a fascinating story involving Shreyas Iyer’s struggles with short balls.

Sridhar recalled an incident from India’s 2018 tour of South Africa, saying that after seeing one of Shreyas’ dismissals, Ravi Shastri, then-coach, India understood Shreyas would have to fight very hard against the rising ball.

Due to his ongoing struggles with the short ball, Shreyas has been in the spotlight recently. In all three of the game’s versions, bouncers have caused problems for the 27-year-old.

Before the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, Sridhar, who was Team India’s fielding coach, spoke candidly about the Mumbai cricketer’s struggles with the rising ball. He stated the following to Cricket.com:

“We have all noticed this vulnerability at the highest level, not only now, and it is widely regarded as such. I recall something that happened back in 2018. After Shreyas Iyer’s (ODI) debut against Sri Lanka in India, we immediately left for a multi-format tour of South Africa.”

‘Morkel tested him out with a short ball’: R Sridhar

Shreyas was given the chance to participate in the ODIs. In one of the games, he faced up against the pacer Morne Morkel. R Sridhar continued the story and added:

“Morkel challenged him right away with a short ball, and he deflected it to the third man. Ravi Shastri was seated next to me. “Sri,” he replied, “ye bachcha ko bahut kaam Karna padega” (Sri, this kid will have to work hard). This player needs to put in a lot of effort to combat rapid, short-pitched bowling, according to Ravi Shastri, who just watched one ball.”

The elegant batter was not picked in the squad for the upcoming Asia Cup T20 tournament in the UAE. He has been named as one of the three standbys.

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