Shreyas Iyer scored a valiant half-century in the second ODI between India and Australia at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday, October 23. He added a crucial 118-run stand off 136 for the third wicket with Rohit Sharma after Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli were dismissed in the seventh over of the first innings by Xavier Bartlett. This partnership laid the foundation for the Men in Blue to post a challenging 264/9 in the first innings. However, Australia managed to chase the target in 46.2 overs, with two wickets to spare.
Speaking after the match, Shreyas reflected on his new batting stance, which has caught the attention of the cricket fraternity. The Mumbai batter explained that he wanted to have an upright stance to help him on bouncy tracks and worked with his coach to achieve the same.
“Well, this technique which I’ve got lately, it’s not that I’ve changed over the time, but since last year, I wanted to have an upright stance where the bounce is a little bit more than expected. And based on that, I worked with my coach and we developed this new technique and it was kind of suiting me pretty well. And the way I grew up playing, it was very much that I predominantly had an upright stance,” Iyer said in the post-match press conference.
“And I just was like, let’s go back to my old technique and see how it paces up. So yeah, I backed myself and then from there on, I started in the domestic. And then till now, I’ve been continuing with the same stance,” he added.
Shreyas also shed light on his partnership with Rohit, which gave India a great platform in the second ODI. They negotiated a brilliant spell of bowling from Josh Hazlewood, mixing caution with aggression.
“And talking about the partnership, I think it was very crucial, as you rightly mentioned. And we were just saying that let’s build the momentum towards us because he was bowling amazingly, Hazelwood, and the ball was seeming in and out. It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on, especially at the start. So we just wanted to have an attacking approach at the start, but at the same time, it wasn’t easy to score runs. So we just decided to rotate the strike as much as possible and see to it that we come to a total where we feel that we can charge on the bowlers.
Whatever the wicket demands, you’ve got to change your stance accordingly: Shreyas Iyer
Coming back to his stance, Iyer said that standing upright helps him not just in Australia but even in certain red-soil wickets in Mumbai, where there is extra bounce on offer. The 30-year-old said that it is important to change stance according to the surface.
Yes, absolutely. Even in Mumbai, when we play on red wickets, where the bounce is a little bit extra than expected, I think it helps with the upright stance. And, yeah, you’ve got to keep chopping and changing every now and then because you don’t play on the same wickets. Whatever the wicket demands, you’ve got to change your stance accordingly. And I think I’ve changed so many stance, I’m able to adapt anywhere at the moment. Just about one day cricket itself.
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