‘They will bowl short at you. Therefore, you will have to come out with a plan.’
Shreyas Iyer’s weakness against the short ball is well-documented. Kolkata Knight Riders Coach Brendon Mccullum, who is now England’s coach, didn’t have any doubts in his plans to go short against Iyer, who captains KKR in the IPL.
The 26-year-old Iyer is not going through the best of times as he had struggled in IPL 2022 as well and his failure to play short balls has left him exposed in the recently concluded South African series at home and also in England.
English seamers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Matthew Potts bowled short at him.
And Iyer knew it too — that one of those short balls will succumb him, so he made a conscious effort to score runs almost every time the ball was, well, not short.
Eventually, as predicted by everyone — Iyer got out to a short ball.
Former India keeper Parthiv Patel said Iyer will be tested by every opponent in the world as they now know his weakness against the short ball. The elegant right-hander, he said, will have to figure a way out quickly.
Speaking about the third T20I, he added that some responsibility should have been taken by Iyer in partnership with Suryakumar Yadav where the majority of the runs were not scored by him.
‘He is a much better player than someone who would move outside his leg stump and look for pull. They will bowl short at you, they will, ab sab ko pata chal gaya hai (everybody knows his weakness against the short ball).’
‘Therefore, you will have to come out with a plan. Should I attack, should I defend, maybe take a single and go to the other end. If not, then he will get exposed’, Patel told Cricbuzz.
Meanwhile, former India pacer R P Singh said Iyer’s weakness against the short ball has ‘spread like a wildfire’.
‘This has spread like a wildfire that he can’t play the short ball. It is not possible for you to move away to your leg stump and play because sometimes the third man can be up or the fine leg can be up. This will stop your run flow. Shreyas needs to take a single and move to the other end.’
‘If you back away, then your stumps get exposed and then you are prone to get clean bowled. Even in IPL we saw Umran Malik had him out. When you play international cricket, people will try to expose you.’
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