In February 2017, Australia arrived on the Indian coast, hoping to correct their mistakes in their previous test series against India (away). On paper, the Australians seem to be stronger than the 2012-13 season and seem to have completed their homework (pun intended).
This time, they also plan to have a warm-up match to adapt themselves to their surroundings and better understand what might work when the test series begins. Unsurprisingly, a match with selected Indian cricketers-everyone wants to impress the top players and wave to them.
The visitors started the game very well and forced the host to give in. Sean Marsh and Steve Smith make dexterous tons, and Matthew Wade and Mitchell Marsh will smash the bowling attack later.
With the ball, Australia had a better start, lowering India's "A" to 19/1 in the 12th game. The tourists found their voices. They feel that when they overcome the demons of the past, the tour is finally over.
Then a burly young man walked to the center. He was not bothered by the verbal volley and the excitement generated by Australia. If this game is seen as an audition for future performances in India, he won't even be bothered. He was outside, he just wanted to hit the ball-hit the ball as if he knew no one was watching, but hit the ball in a way that made millions of people sit up and pay attention.
In the next few hours of cricket matches, Australia finally ushered in their game. The right-handed batsman not only let Australia's sail go smoothly, he also achieved a pleasant double-ton grade. The next day, the headlines were all around this young man. Not surprisingly.
Keep in mind that not many domestic cricket players can succeed in a match against the Australian-the same is true in the warm-up match. But the batsman reversed this statement. So that when the Indian team defeated the Australian team in Pune, the tourists thanked their star for not having to face Shreyas Iyer again.
However, this clever knock on the door has not been ignored. A few months later, Shreyas ushered in his debut in India, albeit in the shortest time against New Zealand.
At first, Shreyas didn't really ignite the world-at least not as he did with Australia. There are a few good articles, but none of them can make him an Indian white ball team with certainty.
The most severe prosecution may be when India was frantically looking for intermediate batsmen at the 2019 ICC World Cup. Explored many options, including the all-rounder (Vijay Shankar), the relative novice (Rishabh Pant), and the veteran (Dinesh Karthik) who longed for his last dance.
At the same time, Shreyas has no reason to even mention it. Although the situation has improved since that omission, especially in the ODI format, there is still a feeling that when all the other bigwigs return, Shreyas may be behind in the pecking order.
As far as the current situation is concerned, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are the de facto ODI opening combination, which means that KL Rahul must be arranged in the middle. With Virat Kohli hitting the ball in 3rd position, Ravindra Jadeja and Pant are almost irreplaceable (at least for now), and Shreyas has few vacancies.
However, in the red ball cricket game, Shreyas seems to have a lot of opportunities. Not because Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have not put on glory for themselves recently, but because Shreyas, due to his excellent first-class record, seems to be more suitable for the longest version anyway.
Shreyas scored an average of 52.18 in top cricket matches. It is worth noting that his hit rate hovers around 81.54. He also has 12 centenarians and 23 50-year-olds, which shows that he tends to make an influential knock on the door and take the game away from his opponent.
In addition, many of Shreyas' top tonnages have encountered excellent bowling attacks. In addition to the 202* against the Australian A team, he has a century against the New Zealand "A" team composed of Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry and Todd Astle.
In domestic cricket matches, Shreyas scored more than 100 points against Vadodara (twice), Bangladesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab (twice), Solashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. , Which shows that he knows how to behave when encountering difficulties.
In 12 of Shreyas's more than 100 runs, he has breached 130 runs on 9 of them, which shows that he has an appetite for scoring mammoths.
However, the most important thing is that Shreyas' game seems to be more suitable for the red ball format, in which there are not so many outfielders patrolling the border, and there is only enough clearance to maintain momentum.
Especially in white ball cricket and T20, his shifting ability has been questioned. In the duration of the game, this may not be a problem at all, coupled with his tendency to run like a mountain, should put him in an advantageous position.
Shreyas' shot may still have some technical flaws. But he is only 26 years old and has enough time to correct it. For this reason, the best exposure in the Indian test seems to be a good choice.
From an Indian point of view, although Shreyas's first-rate record holds the lead in white ball cricket, it took them so long to release his advantage in test cricket, which is surprising.
Even in ODI and T20I, it can be said that his talents have not been fully utilized. He often had to play a role he was not comfortable with-which put him on the edge of ODI and T20Is later.
However, now, he has a chance to prove that he can be an excellent red ball batsman, and is not willing to linger in the shadows like in a white ball cricket game. In other words, he has the opportunity to be tested in the spotlight and shows that India has been missing a trick.
He knows how to not be bothered by such occasions, and seems to understand the risk of putting excessive pressure on himself. The only difference this time was that he couldn't assume that no one was watching.
One billion people will be glued to their televisions, don't get me wrong. But he can make a billion people sit up and pay attention, right? It seems that there is quite a lot of experience in this area too!