“Bowlers know they can get him out by bowling the bouncer” - Aakash Chopra shocked with KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer’s short-ball woes in IPL 2022
Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has expressed surprise at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Shreyas Iyer’s struggles against the short ball. Chopra opined that much better is expected of a player of Iyer’s stature, who has cracked a hundred on Test debut.
Iyer, 27, has had a mixed season with the bat. He has scored 330 runs in 11 matches at an average of 33 and a strike rate of 130.95. He has been dismissed for the short ball a number of times. Even in the franchise’s last match against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), he was done in by a bumper from Dushmantha Chameera.
Iyer is likely to be tested again when Kolkata take on the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Monday. MI could look to bounce out the batter as they have Riley Meredith, Jasprit Bumrah and Daniel Sams in their ranks. Previewing the match on his YouTube channel, Chopra said about Iyer’s poor resistance against the short ball:
“Shreyas Iyer is a big name. He is a player of international stature, who has a Test hundred on debut. But he is just not able to play the bouncer. It’s literally as if bowlers know they can get him out by bowling the bouncer. Not the right thing. He will need to score runs while dealing with the short balls.”
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Iyer was dismissed for six off nine balls against LSG. Chasing 177, Kolkata were bowled out for 101 in 14.3 overs.
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“KKR must press the reset button” - Aakash Chopra wants Venkatesh Iyer and Rahane back as openers
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Speaking about Kolkata’s opening woes, Chopra suggested that the franchise should shun all experiments and go back to the original opening pair of Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane.
The 44-year-old commented:
“I have no clue how many openers this team has changed. I would suggest that KKR must press the reset button and go back to where they started from. Let Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer open the innings again. They did it in Kolkata’s first match against Chennai. They won that game and Rahane scored runs as well. Rahane has been forgotten since. Venkatesh Iyer has been moved up and down the order. I think they should look beyond Aaron Finch and Baba Indrajith and go back to the original opening pair.”
Apart from Ajinkya Rahane, Aaron Finch, Venkatesh Iyer and Baba Indrajith, Sam Billings and Sunil Narine have also opened the innings for KKR during the course of IPL 2022.