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After playing him for four Test matches on the bounce, the Indian selectors have finally had enough of Shreyas Iyer, who averages 19 in his last 10 innings. Iyer, who had a highest score of 35 in his last 10 innings, was not pulling his weight in the Test team and with KL Rahul set to return for the remaining three Tests and domestic star Sarfaraz Khan waiting in the wings, the selectors and the team management decided to drop the middle-order batter.
Iyer, who began his Test career with a century and a fifty in Kanpur against New Zealand, smashed four fifties in his next six matches before negligible returns in the next seven matches. Iyer’s lean patch coincided with the one of Shubman Gill, who too before the Vizag Test had just 160 runs to his name in 10 innings. However, Gill’s second innings century in Visakhapatnam came at a critical moment in his career and Iyer was the one to be sidelined.
Former Australia captain Ian Chappell was sort of relieved that Iyer was no longer part of India’s squad for the remaining three Tests saying that the selectors overestimated his ability while calling Virat Kohli’s absence a huge blow for the hosts. “India is a strong side and they also have a good leader in Rohit Sharma. They will be greatly strengthened by Ravindra Jadeja’s and KL Rahul’s recovery from injury, but that Virat Kohli will not return for the rest of the series is a blow. Hopefully, the selectors will now stop overestimating Shreyas Iyer’s batting ability and learn to value Kuldeep Yadav’s wicket-taking capability more,” Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNCricinfo.
Chappell reckoned that being the hosts India might still be able to win the series, however, mentioned that England will fight tooth and nail against them and the hosts will have to be wary.
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