Gorgeous cover drive, two sixes – Shreyas Iyer’s day out at Wankhede

Shamik Chakrabarty & Sudisha Sinha at Wankhede Stadium

The first game he played in the T20 Mumbai League this year, there wasn’t that much buzz around Shreyas Iyer. In fact, he was a little late to arrive at Wankhede Stadium and rushed to be present at the toss. Turning up for Mumbai Falcons, Shreyas was dismissed for five against ARCS Andheri two days ago. Today’s game was different.

The senior selection committee is meeting in Mumbai on Saturday to pick India’s T20I squads for the upcoming tours of Ireland and England. And Shreyas could be India’s next shortest-format captain, at the expense of Suryakumar Yadav. On Thursday, against Maratha Royals, Shreyas played as an Impact Sub. The buzz, naturally, was around him.

Batting first, Maratha Royals scored 152/9, with Sahil Jadhav scoring 52 off 30 balls. Akash Parkar was the most successful bowler for Falcons, returning with 3/22 from three overs.

When Falcons batted, they had a 57-run opening partnership between Ishan Mulchandani (29) and Aditya Tare (42). Shreyas walked out to bat at No. 3, and he was timing the ball well. More than the two sixes that he hit, a cover drive off Atharva Bhosale was gorgeous. Shreyas raced to 30 off 23 balls before attempting an ungainly hoick against off-spinner Maxwell Swaminathan. He was adjudged leg-before on review.

The game became tight. Seven runs were required off the final over bowled by Arjun Dani. The radar didn’t work. Dani, bowling his first over in the game, started off with a no-ball followed by a wide and another no-ball. That was that. Falcons scored 156/7 to win by three wickets with five balls to spare.

Shreyas, though was the cynosure of all eyes. He was in excellent form in the IPL and signed off from the tournament with 101 not out off 51 balls against Lucknow Super Giants. His team, Punjab Kings, didn’t qualify for the playoffs, but over the last two seasons in the IPL, Shreyas has done enough to be considered as Suryakumar’s replacement in India’s T20I side.

“I really enjoy batting with Shreyas, because he makes batting easier for his partner,” said Falcons’ stand-in captain Tare at the post-match press conference. “He has been doing this for over a decade now.”

Asked why Shreyas played as an Impact Sub, Tare allayed any injury concerns. “There’s no problem. He is coming off a long season and we just wanted him to be fresh for batting.”

Tare hailed Shreyas’ leadership, saying: “Young players look up to him. He boosts their confidence.”

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