Career Graph Of Shreyas Iyer:
In the past year, Shreyas Iyer may have adjusted well to cement his place as India’s No 4 batsman in the limited-over formats-both in ODIs and T20Is. His mature play as No. 3 for Delhi Capitals also played a crucial role in their advancement to the Indian Premier League play-offs last season. The ability to consolidate, however, was not a normal feature of his game, renowned for his explosive strokeplay in the domestic circuit, which often bordered on the reckless zone.
Speaking of the shift in attitude in recent years, Iyer said “Some of it is natural and some of it is mental as well. Both go 50/50. You have to be mentally very strong when you play at the highest level. You have to believe in yourself, and you have to be positive at that stage. Yes, I think at that time, I was really confident about the way that I used to approach my innings, and my body language used to say it. But people used to think I was very lazy and lethargic, but I never thought about what they would think about me, I just backed myself, and I just used to do the things the way I liked to do.”
While he scored heavily in the initial years on the domestic circuit, his approach may have drawn comparisons with Virender Sehwag, but it was not always appreciated. Iyer tells the story of his maiden encounter with Rahul Dravid, who worked as coach of India A during his tenure with the side, and what he learned from Indian legend.
“It was a four-day match and Rahul Dravid was seeing me for the first time,” he said. “It was the 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?”
