Bengaluru, Feb 15: Shreyas Iyer is fidgety at the crease, almost Steve Smith-like. He keeps swinging the bat up and down against pacers, and walks across the stumps against the spinners. He often adopts different stances too.
It gives his batting a touch of restlessness. But behind that exterior disquiet, works a steady, calculative brain focused on finding run-making ways, and it will be India’s biggest asset going into the Champions Trophy.
India will have varied threats to negate in the ICC showpiece’s league stages – spin from Bangladesh and New Zealand and pace from Pakistan.
In No. 4 Shreyas, India has the best possible candidate for that job.
Let’s go through how the 30-year-old fares against spin in the ODIs, and he will face left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner and off-spinner Michael Bracewell while playing against New Zealand.
The Kiwis spin twins had applied breaks on Pakistan batters in the middle passage, where Shreyas too will bat, during the tri-series final at Karachi on Friday.
The Mumbai man will also have to negate a set of slow bowlers from Bangladesh like veteran left-arm spinner Mahmudullah. (PTI)
