Shreyas Iyer Reveals Story When He Surprised Rahul Dravid With His Batting
Published - 04 Apr 2020, 08:31 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:05 AM
Shreyas Iyer looks set to get a long rope from the Indian team thanks to his impressive display with the bat in the last few months. After being in and out of the team for months, he was finally given an extended run after last year’s World Cup. India were searching for a reliable number four batsman and Shreyas Iyer seems to have solved that long standing problem.
Shreyas Iyer made his international debut way back in 2017 but did not really get a good number of chances to prove himself. It was only after India tried out a host of batsmen in the middle-order without success, he was recalled to the ODI team last year.
In his comeback series which was in West Indies, he scored fifties and shared century-plus stands with skipper Virat Kohli in two ODIs. The Mumbai star further enhanced his reputation by slamming an impressive 62 against Bangladesh at home in the Nagpur T20I.
In the subsequent home ODI series against West Indies, he scored two more fifties while batting at number four. A few weeks ago, he scored his first ODI century during the tour of New Zealand. And as he keeps impressing in international cricket, Shreyas Iyer has shared an interesting story about how he once surprised his former India A coach Rahul Dravid with his batting.
Shreyas Iyer revealed that he used to believe in ‘see the ball, hit the ball’ playing style. And when Dravid saw him bat for the first time, he was taken aback. The right-handed batsman also insisted that after that incident, he realised that it was important to bat more maturely.
“It was a four-day match and Rahul Dravid was seeing me for the first time,” Shreyas Iyer was quoted as saying by India Today. “It was first day’s last over. I was batting on 30 or something, so everyone thought [that since] it is the last over I’ll play out the over, I’ll play it carefully and finish it. Rahul Dravid sir was sitting inside.
“He [the bowler] bowled a flighted delivery, so I stepped out and hit it in the air. It went high up in the air and it was a six. Everyone in the dressing room came out running, they were looking up, and thinking who plays the last over like this.
“That day he [Rahul Dravid] judged me for how I am. He came to me and he was like “Boss! What is this? [It is the] day’s last over and you’re doing this?” But later on, I started realising about what he was trying to say,” he added.
