The T20 format has truly revolutionised cricket. The fast-paced nature of the game doesn’t leave much scope for slow starters. The tempo of the game is such that even playing a single dot ball is considered a crime. Shreyas Iyer, one of India’s finest batters at the moment, feels ‘intent’ has a big role to play when it comes to success and failure in T20s.
In an interview with the Times of India, Iyer opened up on the nature of game that batters are expected to play in T20s. The middle-order batter admitted that even a single dot ball in the shortest format of the game puts extreme pressure on players.
“The intent,” said Iyer on being asked about a trend that players need to work on. “For every ball, you need to think about scoring. As a batsman, I feel if you play a dot ball, it’s a crime. It takes a toll on the batsman. When you said about that West Indies team, with such a line-up that everybody comes up and smashes from the first ball, you really need to set up a great total on the board.”
Iyer remained unbeaten in the three T20Is against Sri Lanka, scoring three fifties while aggregating over 200 runs in the series. The batter has looked solid since his return to the national side against New Zealand last year after he had incurred a shoulder injury against England in March 2021 that ruled him out for months.
The 27-year-old said that he does feel very good following his Man of the series show against the Lankans. Iyer once again cited ‘intent’ as the key to scoring such runs on a consistent basis.
“Yeah, it felt very good. The start, which I got, was really amazing. I told myself I am just going to play with full freedom because now we have such depth in our batting line-up that it gives us more freedom to go and express ourselves. Even if we are a few runs down, the intent has to be very positive,” he said.
Playing at the No. 3 spot in the absence of Virat Kohli, Iyer has submitted a big case for himself in India’s T20I team. While Suryakumar Yadav seems to be a certain starter in the middle-order, Iyer would need to put up a big fight if he is to claim a regular place in the Indian team in the shortest format.
