Batting great Sunil Gavaskar has backed Shreyas Iyer after his underwhelming show with the bat in the Test series against South Africa. The middle-order batter’s struggles against the short balls continued on the Proteas soil as he failed to score big there.
Team India is going through a transitional phase in Test cricket as Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been dropped from the squad. Iyer has been chosen as the successor of Rahane in the Test set-up but his record in overseas Tests is below-par.
Iyer registered low scores – 31, 6, 0 and 4* on the Proteas tour his place in the Test set-up once again came under the scanners.
However, Gavaskar came in support of Iyer and said apart from Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, every Indian batter struggled in the Proteas conditions.
“Shreyas Iyer is not the only player who failed because it’s not easy for any batter on these pitches. If you see, barring Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, no one else scored too many runs,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
The legendary cricketer further said that the selection committee will give Iyer more chances to prove his mettle in red-ball cricket.
“You cannot point fingers at just one player. So I feel the selection committee will also think that he should probably be given more chances,” Gavaskar added.
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also gave his take on Iyer’s rough patch in Test cricket in overseas conditions as he pointed out his defensive errors.
“It’s very difficult for him because the problem is with the defense against both full and short deliveries. So, he has to work a lot to score runs on foreign pitches,” Manjrekar said.
Iyer has played 12 Tests thus far in which he scored 707 runs at an average of 39.28.
He further pointed out that if Iyer continues to play with the counter-attacking approach he will lack consistency.
“If you don’t have the defense, you have to take risks to score runs and when you take too many risks with a counterattacking approach, you don’t have the consistency,” Manjrekar added.
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