Shreyas Iyer makes his World Cup case with one of the best innings of his career

Whether it's blasting away from ball 1, or pacing his innings to take India to the finish line, Iyer changes gears like no one else in Team India.

How does a relatively old-school batsman like Shreyas Iyer stand out in India’s T20I side, one that is bursting with an abundance of batting riches and competing not just against England but also with each other for T20 World Cup spots? Iyer does so by changing batting gears better than anyone else, as he has shown time and again during this on-going series.

India's Shreyas Iyer in action. (REUTERS)

A lot of Iyer’s teammates have shinier and more obvious short-format weapons than him. Take his Mumbai teammate Suryakumar Yadav, for example, who mesmerised with his 360-degree play in his very first T20I innings on Thursday with a half-century, including a first-ball six in international cricket. The other series-debutant in Ishan Kishan is so uninhibited in an approach that he brings back memories of a young Rohit Sharma.

Sharma himself continues to command a starting spot for his big-stage temperament while captain Virat Kohli never stops improving on his all-format skills. KL Rahul may be out of form, but he still boasts of the best strike rate among India’s top-heavy batting pool. Then there is the great lower-order power-hitter in Hardik Pandya and, to boot, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant as well, whose success in Test cricket has given him a second life in T20Is.

Amid those heavyweights, Iyer has carved a niche for himself with his matured batting approach, adapting to situations better than almost anyone else. Like he did on Thursday night and helped India post a winning score 186 to square the five-match series 2-2.

There was a lot to admire in Iyer’s 18-ball 37. When he came out to bat at 110/4 in the 14th over, India was still in need of a big finish. Iyer is not known to hit top-gear immediately and it will be fair to say that the expectations of adding big runs from thereon would’ve rested on the shoulders of Iyer’s batting partner at the time in Pant, and the man to follow in Pandya.

But Iyer signalled his intent straightaway by launching a cover-drive off Sam Curran for four. It was the first ball he faced. He finished that over with a cut through third man for four more, both his feet off the ground as he rose with Curran's short delivery. The boundaries kept flowing through the innings, what with Iyer outscoring the more accomplished Pant (and then Pandya) at the other end.

When Mark Wood was re-introduced into the attack for his extra yard of pace, Iyer used his crease to perfection, moving well across the off stump and dispatching him first to the wide long-on boundary, and on another occasion gliding the ball past third man. Pant was soon dismissed for 30, and England hit hard lengths to give Pandya little chance to summon his long levers. Yet, by the time Iyer was dismissed in the final over, his 37 runs amounted to half of the 75 runs that India scored from the time he had come in. Making frequent use of the square boundaries with angled blades, he put his versatility on great display – here was a top-order anchor playing the role of finisher to great effect.

That’s where Iyer’s strength lies anyway – in his dexterity to build an innings in any given situation. He is particularly good against spin, but these days the opposition is always mindful of that fact. So, he doesn’t get to face the turners as much as he used to, although the rising delivery is never in short supply when Iyer is at the crease. But throughout his cameo on Thursday (and also during his rearguard knock of 67 in the first T20I) Iyer served timely reminders to the men who ignored him for the 2019 World Cup to not make the same mistake for the upcoming T20 World Cup.