[In Pictures] Under-fire Shreyas Iyer sweats it out in Visakhapatnam ahead of India's second Test against England
Indian batter Shreyas Iyer seems to be in high spirits ahead of the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam, despite the right-hander not having enough runs under his belt of late.
Iyer took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share pictures of him getting into the groove in the nets and seemed to be playing attacking shots. Among the pictures was one where he laughed while wearing his shoes, suggesting that the morale in the Indian camp hadn't taken a hit despite the shock loss in Hyderabad.
Here's what Shreyas Iyer captioned the pictures with:
"Head down, focus up. š®š³"
Iyer couldn't make the most of his start in the first innings in Hyderabad as he perished for 35. In the second essay, his soft dismissal for 13 all but ended India's hopes of chasing down the target of 231.
Shreyas Iyer needs to step up amidst rough patch
In his previous 10 Test innings, Shreyas Iyer has scored just 131 runs. With uncapped domestic talents like Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan in the squad, questions around Iyer's Test spot have naturally been making rounds in the cricketing fraternity.
However, India's batting coach Vikram Rathour has thrown his weight behind Iyer and other relatively inexperienced batters, backing them to come good in the long run. Here's what he told reporters in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday:
"There are young batters in our team who have not played much Test cricket. So, we need to be a bit patient with them. Batters like (Shubman) Gill, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and (Shreyas) Iyer will eventually start getting big runs, Iām sure of it."
Virat Kohli's unavailability coupled with injuries to KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja means that India will have a pretty inexperienced batting line-up in the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam.
The likes of Iyer and Shubman Gill will need to step up alongside captain Rohit Sharma to ensure India bat well and have the best shot at leveling the series.