Image Credit- Getty
Fast bowlers who aim to hit Shreyas Iyer with short
deliveries have “no problem” dealing with him. The Indian batter
addressed the notion that he has a weakness in his game with great emphasis.
“When you say it’s a problem for me, what do you
mean?” he started at the post-match press conference after he made 82 off
56 balls to help defeat Sri Lanka and seal India’s passage to the World Cup
semi-final. “Have you seen how many pull shots I’ve scored, specially
which has gone for four?”
With a strike percentage of 135.44, Shreyas does well
against the short ball. Furthermore, 34 out of 191 of the fours he has struck
in his ODI career—or nearly 20%—have come off short balls. The problem is that
he averages 21.40 versus the short length, which indicates that he is getting
out a lot while attempting to hit these massive shots.
Shreyas’ argument, though, is that’s life as a batter.
“You know if you try to hit a ball, you’re bound to get out anyway whether
it’s a short ball or overpitched. If I get bowled two or three times, you all
would say he can’t play an inswinging ball, he can’t play if the ball is
seaming. You guys have created that mahol [feeling] outside that he can’t play
a short ball, and I feel that people are picking that up every now and then and
it plays on your mind regularly and you keep working on that.
“Coming from Mumbai, especially from Wankhede,
where the bounce is pretty much even and you know it bounces way more than any
other pitches. I’ve played a majority of my game here. So I know how to tackle
it. It’s just that when I go to hit some shots you are bound to get out and
sometimes it may work sometimes it may not. Majority of the time it hasn’t
worked for me, maybe that’s the reason you think it’s a problem for me, but in
my mind I know there’s no problem.”