IND vs WI 2022: "He has fallen behind in the pecking order" - Aakash Chopra on Shreyas Iyer's poor form
Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra feels Shreyas Iyer hasn't utilized his chances properly with his poor performances of late in T20Is. Team India backed him to the No. 3 position in the ongoing series against West Indies, but he hasn't quite been able to play any innings of note.
Earlier this year, Iyer smashed three consecutive half-centuries in the T20I series against Sri Lanka and many felt he had booked his spot on the plane to Australia. However, his vulnerable strokeplay against short-pitched bowling was exposed in the IPL 2022 season and he hasn't been the same batter ever since.
Speaking to sports presenter Jatin Sapru on his YouTube channel on Saturday, here's what Aakash Chopra had to say about Iyer's future in the Indian T20I team:
"I think when the IPL happened (after the Sri Lanka series) people found out Shreyas' weakness against short ball and bowled bouncers. It probably started playing on his mind and he might have started overthinking about it. He has got a decent number of chances at No. 3, but honestly now he has fallen behind in the pecking order, especially with the clutter at the top."
Ishan Kishan will be wondering, "What wrong have I done?" - Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra has been quite baffled with the way the Indian team management has sidelined Ishan Kishan from their T20I plans of late. The 24-year-old had a fantastic series against South Africa and is still India's highest run-scorer in this format in 2022.
However, the Men in Blue have persisted with Suryakumar Yadav at the top of the order and have ignored Kishan, something that Chopra feels is very 'unfortunate'. On this, he stated:
"I think he (Kishan) would only play if Rohit Sharma hasn't recovered. But it looks like he has as he has been practicing in the nets. You haven't won the series yet, so I don't see any changes happening.
"This is very unfortunate for Ishan since he was the front runner till the Ireland series and then suddenly in England, you opened with Rishabh Pant, then against West Indies you used Suryakumar Yadav. So even Ishan would be thinking, 'What wrong have I done? Where am I?'"
We move forward, together 🇮🇳💙 https://t.co/L58o8yQpWY
It will be interesting to see whether India bring in Kishan for the out-of-form Iyer for the fourth T20I against West Indies, set to begin in Florida in a few hours.