Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad says Shreyas Iyer can be the solution to India’s No 4 problem in the limited-overs line-up given his fine growth as a player in the past two years.
Iyer made his India debut in November 2017 with a T20I against New Zealand and in the following month, played in his maiden ODI series, scoring back-to-back half centuries in the home rubber against Sri Lanka. The 24-year-old played three ODIs in South Africa two months later before he was sidelined, only making a comeback in the ODIs against the West Indies in August this year following India’s campaign in the World Cup.
“If you recall, we had inducted Shreyas Iyer (when Virat Kohli was rested) 18 months back into the ODI squad and he has done reasonably well. Unfortunately we couldn’t continue with him. Having said that, he has evolved as a player now and he can be the solution to our number 4 slot in both ODIs and T20s,” Prasad said.
The highly-rated batsman kept piling on the runs for Mumbai in domestic cricket and also for India A besides expressing disappointment at not getting enough chances at the highest level. Now he is back in the thick of things and has done well in both ODIs and T20s since the West Indies tour.
Talking about the T20 World Cup in Australia next year, Prasad said they are very close to finalising the core of the team for the showpiece event. Experimentation has been going on in the shortest format but one will have to wait till the IPL for the picture to be clearer. “I think we are very close to finalising the core team. May be a couple of slots is what we are looking for in the next few months in the bilateral series and also in IPL,” added Prasad.