Shreyas Iyer couldn’t complete his hundred. He was left stranded on 97 off 42 balls, as Shashank Singh took the mickey out of Mohammed Siraj in the final over. Twenty-three runs were scored in that over, 22 of them coming off Shashank’s bat, while the other one was a wide. At the end of Punjab Kings’ innings, the skipper gave a pat on his partner’s back. Missing out on his maiden IPL century didn’t upset him. It was about his team posting an imposing total against Gujarat Titans.
Indian cricket has moved on from personal-milestone obsession. Shreyas is a part of the dressing-room where Rohit Sharma takes the lead to encourage the collective. The trickle-down effect puts team effort at the forefront. It couldn’t be different for Shreyas as PBKS captain.
“Shreyas told me right from the start, ‘Shashank, don’t look at my hundred. Just play your shots’,” the uncapped player, who hammered 44 not out off 16 balls, told the host broadcasters during the innings break. A selfless captain easily wins over the dressing room.
Prior to the start of the season, Shreyas had spoken about his willingness to bat at No. 3. On Tuesday, against a GT bowling attack boasting five international players, he showed the extent of damage he can do even in the shortest format. His innings had nine sixes. This IPL is Shreyas’s audition as regards earning his place back in the Indian T20I side. There’s a World Cup to play for next year. The 30-year-old has made a strong start.
The pitch was flat. But Rashid Khan asks tough questions in this format irrespective of the conditions. The way Shreyas picked his wrong’un and dispatched it over the long-on boundary in the 14th over was a thing of beauty. It took him to a 27-ball half-century. Next ball, he waltzed into his shot and collected another six over the deep mid-wicket fence. He negated Rashid by picking the length early.
In the previous over, Shreyas had made short work of left-arm spinner Sai Kishore. He is India’s best batsman against spin any day of the week, and has now improved his batting significantly against pace as well. The short ball no longer reduces him to a jumping jack or a sitting duck. Hard work at the nets is paying off.
Is Shreyas one of the misunderstood characters in Indian cricket? The question has to be asked. Last year, he was staring at impending doom after being shunted out of the BCCI’s central-contracts list. He gritted his teeth and led Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL title. By his own admission, though, Shreyas did get enough “recognition” for his contributions as a skipper. The upside was that he returned to the Indian ODI fold. He will earn back his BCCI retainership, when a new list is put out this season.
From the IPL’s perspective, KKR didn’t retain their title-winning captain and PBKS, under Ricky Ponting as their head coach, pounced, forking out Rs 26.75 crore at the mega auction. Will KKR’s loss be PBKS’s gain? Time will tell.