Shreyas Iyer came in as a replacement for Tilak Varma during the New Zealand series. But so far, he hasn’t appeared in any match. In the last match, when Ishan Kishan was rested, Arshdeep Singh came in. And still, no place for Iyer? When Tilak Varma is still unfit, this sounds unfair – or is there a reason behind it?
When Shreyas Iyer was added to the squad, we thought he would appear in the playing XI. But Ishan Kishan came in and played at No. 3, which sounds fair as he is already in the World Cup squad. Even Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav mentioned in the press conference:
“Ishan will bat at No. 3, since he is in our World Cup team, and we picked him first, so it’s his responsibility and his turn to play. He hasn’t played for India for a long time, but he’s been doing well in domestic cricket. Since we’ve picked him in the World Cup squad, I feel he deserves to play. If it was a question of No. 4 or 5, we may have thought differently, but unfortunately Tilak isn’t there, and I think Ishan is the best bet at No. 3.”
But when you are benching Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer feels like the natural replacement at No. 3 to provide stability in the middle order, especially when Sanju Samson is out of form and Rinku Singh coming in at No. 4 is questionable. Rinku usually bats at No. 7, and promoting him to No. 3 when you have Shreyas Iyer as a backup option raises questions.
If the Indian team management wants to play only with its T20 World Cup squad, then what’s the point of having Shreyas Iyer in the T20 squad? If Tilak Varma stays unfit for the upcoming T20 World Cup starting from 7 February, then Shreyas Iyer is the potential player who can replace him. Indian commentator Aakash Chopra also questioned Indian management in his recent reel of #Akashvani.
Disclosing the management’s decision on not picking Shreyas, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav mentioned in his post-match press conference:
“I feel we purposely played six batters today. We wanted to have five proper bowlers and wanted to challenge ourselves. For example, if we’re chasing 180 or 200 and we are two or three down, how does it look? But then it’s fine at the end of the day.”
The management’s decision may be appropriate as the World Cup is ahead, but the execution still feels debatable. This experiment didn’t require excluding Shreyas specifically. You could still play six batters with Shreyas instead of forcing Rinku up the order.
