IPL success couldn’t suppress Kanpur Test hero Shreyas Iyer’s crimson ball dream

“I once casually told him ‘theek hai na, Test nahi khelne mil raha hai toh kya hua? White-ball khel, cricket pe dhyan de’ [It’s okay, so what if you’re not getting to play Tests? Play white-ball, focus on your game],” says Siddhesh Lad, Shreyas Iyer’s long-time Mumbai team-mate.
“He looked at me and said, ‘nahi, nahi red-ball ek din khelna hai. Aur sirf khelna nahi hai, lamba khelna hai’ [No, no, I want to play red-ball someday. And not just play, but play for a long time].”
Iyer has achieved stardom on the premise of his exploits in white-ball cricket. He’s led Delhi Capitals within the Indian Premier League (IPL) with some success, and has represented India 54 instances throughout ODIs and T20Is. Amid all this, the truth that he has additionally performed the identical variety of first-class matches — with greater than four-and-a-half thousand runs at a median of 52.18 – has slipped below the radar in latest instances.

Shreyas Iyer will get to his maiden Test ton as #StaffIndia publish 339/8 at Lunch on Day 2.
Scorecard – https://t.co/WRsJCUhS2d #INDvNZ @Paytm pic.twitter.com/8Yu3nuJDyK
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 26, 2021
On the day he turned solely the sixteenth Indian to make 100 on Test debut at Green Park in Kanpur, it’s pertinent to recall that his red-ball profession had kickstarted on the similar floor seven years in the past. Having made 7, 1 and 11 in his first-class profession till then, Iyer got here in at 53/5 — which quickly turned 57/6 — and blasted 75 off 78 to revive Mumbai to 270 towards Uttar Pradesh.
And he did so carrying borrowed garments from team-mate Aditya Tare, as he had forgotten his personal equipment on the resort. “It was a chilly winter. You ask any cricketer, unke zindagi mein aisa ek time aaya hoga [there would have come a time in their life] when they would have forgotten their dress in the hotel. Shreyas took clothes from Tare and scored his first half-century in Kanpur. It was a much-needed one because in his first two games he hadn’t scored any runs,” says India and Mumbai team-mate Shardul Thakur, who took 9 wickets in the identical match.

📸📸#INDvNZ @Paytm pic.twitter.com/kvXBEOq0V3
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 26, 2021
That knock heralded a strong maiden Ranji season for Iyer – 809 runs at 50.56 – adopted by a very bumper one in 2015-16 – a staggering 1321 runs at 73.38. It was backed by one other productive season in 2016-17 – 725 runs at 42.64. But the Test call-up wasn’t coming, though he’d play 14 instances for India ‘A’ from 2015 to 2018, for 962 runs at 45.80. He has been a part of the nationwide white-ball set-up for 4 years now, however that Test cap was nonetheless proving to be elusive.
“From 2014 to 2018, Iyer often found himself walking in during the second or third over of the game. He scored in all conditions and succeeded,” Thakur says. “He was desperate to play red-ball cricket. He is not the one who will crib. He will talk less. Whenever he was not picked, he used to say, ‘tu dekh main aur achha karunga’ [You see I’ll perform even better]. He never lost his hopes and continued his hard work.”
Emotionless section
That desperation Thakur talks about gave option to a section throughout which Iyer advised this paper three years in the past that he had change into “emotionless.” He had satisfied himself that he wished to take pleasure in his life within the current as an alternative of obsessing over when he would get his alternative.
“Mazaa karna hai [I want to have fun]. I don’t want selection issues to rule my happiness. Otherwise I would get frustrated and thinking about the future will ruin my present also. It’s better to enjoy life. Selection is a temporary thing,” Iyer had stated.
All alongside, one factor that has stood out about Iyer is his unflinching self-belief, regardless of the stage of his profession, and regardless of what the world thinks about him. “I see myself as a very big batsman. I have visualised and made it my vision a long time back,” he had stated throughout the identical dialog in December 2018.
Shreyas Iyer receives standing ovation as he’s again within the pavilion after being dismissed by New Zealand’s Tim Southee in the course of the day two of their first take a look at cricket match in Kanpur, India, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
He has hardly ever shied away from talking his thoughts. Earlier that yr in March, simply 4 months after he had made his India debut, he had declared that he deserved extra possibilities within the Indian workforce.
“I should get a long run. I have done that much performance so obviously I deserve it,” he had advised this correspondent in Dharamsala, the place he was main India ‘B’ within the Deodhar Trophy.

Just a bit earlier, every week after he had made his India debut in November 2017, Iyer turned out for Mumbai towards Baroda within the Ranji Trophy. Battling a 404-run first-innings deficit, Iyer arrived with minutes to go for stumps on the third night, with the sphere set for the bouncer. He went on to assault practically each quick ball he confronted, and succumbed for simply 8. Next day, Lad performed out 238 balls to defy Baroda and earn a draw.
Iyer was predictably panned for his method. But he had felt assault was the way in which to go, and would later inform somebody within the Mumbai set-up that even the soccer nice Zlatan Ibrahimovic needed to face criticism.
That outstanding religion in his method has carried him at a first-class strike-rate of 80-plus. Even on the sluggish and low Green Park observe, after strolling in at 106/3 and shedding his captain at 145/4, Iyer’s debut Test innings got here at a strike-rate of 61.40.
After he ended Day One on 75 off 136, former Mumbai coach and wicketkeeper-batter Vinayak Samant had advised this paper that Iyer would race to his hundred on the second day. Iyer wanted solely 21 balls within the morning to maneuver from 75 to 100.
Samant says that when Iyer has assessed the circumstances, he has the sport to have the ability to bat as he pleases throughout codecs. “The basic difference is that in white-ball cricket, you have to look to hit, and in red-ball, you have to play late. It is not easy, of course, but if you get that very basic sense right, you will perform across formats. And Shreyas has that sense,” Samant says.
“He gets into good positions more often than not. His bat does not burst forward. He controls the bat-swing, and that is what helps him do well. Plus, his head position is also largely stable. He is mentally pretty strong, and understands his game very well now.”
As Lad says, “He loves to play under pressure. Few players excel under pressure. Iyer is one of them. He likes to wait for his moment. He always waited for this day.” Red-ball khelna hai, lamba khelna hai.
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