India’s leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal praised Shreyas Iyer for scoring a fine century in the opening T20I against the West Indies at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Tuesday. The Mumbai batter scored a blistering knock of 102 runs off just 43 balls as he batted at the top of his game in the run-chase of 172.
Iyer completed his fifty off just 28 balls and then changed gears as he raced from 50 to 100 off just 14 balls. This is Iyer’s maiden T20I century, which would give him a lot of confidence. The Indian skipper was awarded Player of the Match for his superb batting performance.
Chahal hailed Iyer for his shot selection and attacking mindset.
“Definitely, attacking the mind. When Shreyas came at the start, he used to go back and play the cut. Now he comes across, and if the midwicket fielder is up, he has that option as well. If you bowl outside the off-stump, his reach is so good that he plays over cover and mid-off. So, the bowler gets slightly stuck there as to what he should do when he is not getting any help from the wicket,” Chahal said on Star Sports.
The leg-spinner, who recently announced his first-class retirement, said Iyer has focused on timing the ball rather than trying to hit it hard, which has helped him improve his batting.
“When I bowled to him in the nets, I had to bowl wider, or else he used to easily hit me over cover for a six. One or one-and-a-half years ago, he used to hit hard, but nowadays he times the ball, and that’s the specialty because of which his batting has improved so much,” he added.
On the other hand, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar said Iyer was accurately reading the bowlers’ mind in the series opener.
“In batting, especially in T20s, you challenge the bowler’s mindset a little. You also guess. When you play chess, you guess what the next move would be. So you think as a batter where the bowler would bowl. When Romario Shepherd was bowling, he was going back and very much across,” he said.
The second T20I between India and the West Indies will be played at Ranchi on Friday.
