IND v AUS 2020: Shreyas Iyer says he was in two minds to pull or to upper cut the short ball in the first ODI
Indian cricket team's middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer spoke at length about his experience of playing against Australia so far in the three-match One-Day International (ODI) series.
The 25-year-old got out in disappointing fashion during the first one-dayer. Shreyas Iyer seemed to be in two minds while facing Josh Hazlewood's short delivery, and during the press conference ahead of the third ODI, the Delhi Capitals skipper admitted the same.
"I knew the short ball was going to come so I was in two minds. I was thinking of pulling and at the same time I have the upper cut. I got stuck in between two shots and I couldn't play the shot," Shreyas Iyer said.
The right-handed batsman departed after scoring just two runs off two deliveries. But Iyer looked quite focused in the second game. He maintained a 100+ strike rate and built a solid 93-run partnership with skipper Virat Kohli.
It took a splendid catch from Steve Smith to send him back to the pavilion.
"In the second match, I was just like - look at the ball and react. It's very easy to do that, rather than think what the bowler is bowling. You can actually predict, once you are set, what the bowler is going to bowl, so I usually give myself time at the start and that's what I applied in the second match and it really worked out well," the Mumbai-born batsman continued.
Shreyas Iyer feels the transition from T20s to 50-over cricket has been difficult for the bowlers
The Indian cricket team has suffered two crushing losses on this tour so far. The Australian batsmen have dominated the Indian bowlers.
Shreyas Iyer believed that playing a lot of cricket in IPL 2020 and the subsequent quarantine has affected the Indian stars.
"If you see the amount of workload they've gone through in the IPL - playing 14 games - and after that they've come here and stayed in quarantine - definitely it plays on your mind," he added.
The number four batsman felt that every individual in the squad was impacted in the same way.
Shreyas Iyer concluded by saying that bowling ten overs on the trot and fielding for 50 overs made the Indian bowlers' transition from T20s to ODIs a difficult process.