Published: Feb 07, 2025, 04:55 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 07, 2025, 04:55 PM (IST)
Legendary Australia cricketer Ricky Ponting finds it baffling that batter Shreyas Iyer isn’t a regular in India’s white-ball set-up despite his magnificent form. This statement comes following Iyer’s brilliant knock of 59 runs from 36 deliveries against England in the first ODI in Nagpur.
Iyer was one of the star performers for India in the 2023 ODI World Cup, scoring 530 runs which saw him emerge as the seventh-highest run-scorer of the ICC tournament’s 13th edition.
The 30-year-old has also been quite impressive in the domestic season as well, scoring 2 centuries for Mumbai in the Viajy Hazare Trophy.
“I’ve been a little bit surprised that he’s been out of India’s side in the last couple of years. He had a terrific World Cup back in India (2023) where he played beautifully in the middle-order and I actually felt then that he’d almost cemented that spot and made that his own,” Ponting said on ICC Review.
“Then he had those couple of injuries, obviously injured his back and went out of the side, but his domestic season this year has been brilliant. It sort of coincided with what he’s done since around (IPL) auction time going forward in domestic cricket, he has been pretty much outstanding,” Ponting added.
The former Australia cricketer also believes that Iyer will thrive on the slow, lower pitches which he will be facing in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy where India will be playing their share of matches in Dubai.
“He’s got the game that will stand up to the white-ball formats, especially in that part of the world,” Ponting said.
“On those wickets — the slower, lower wickets — he’s dynamic on those. We know how good a hitter of spin bowling he is and teams tend not to bowl a lot of spin at India, but at some stage it’s going to come,” Ponting added.
