Madan Lal urges Shreyas Iyer to work on his short ball deficiencies

Shreyas Iyer was going through a purple patch not so long ago as the stylish Mumbai-batter smashed 380 runs at a stupendous average of 63.33 and an impressive strike rate of 155.73 in the last four series he played prior to the IPL 2022. As a result of that, Iyer was being considered as an able understudy to the likes of Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav. 

However, Iyer’s recent form hasn’t been an encouraging sign for the Indian team. After blowing hot and cold in the IPL 2022, Iyer has had a disappointing series against South Africa, and he managed to score just 94 runs across five innings at an average of 23.50 with an abysmal strike rate of 123.68. Although he has continued to dominate the spinners, his ability to play the short balls has been consistently tested by the Proteas seamers, to which Iyer has had no satisfactory answer.  

Former Indian fast bowler Madan Lal feels that Iyer must resolve this glaring issue as soon as possible if he wants to keep his name in the reckoning for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. Speaking to Sports Tak, Lal said that if the batter’s weakness continues to be exposed, it will definitely be exploited by the opposition bowlers in international cricket. 

“In international cricket, if you have a weakness, oppositions will surely go after it (Iyer’s short-ball weakness). Forget that they won’t. Even if he scores a hundred, they will clap, but they won’t spare you. There’s no mercy here,” Lal said. 

Adding further, the Punjab-born seamer stressed that the evolution of technology has made it significantly easier for the teams to work out the opponent batters, which is why bowlers will consistently challenge Iyer with the short stuff. Therefore, Iyer needs to improve his game against short-pitched deliveries as soon as possible. 

“With the kind of technology that exists, every team keeps a strong track of the opposition. They will keep bowling short to him. Now he has to sort out himself, has to find out a way,” the 71-year-old concluded. 

Despite having the exceptional ability of finding the gaps, Shreyas Iyer has constantly struggled against the short-pitched bowling. This evident loophole in his game has hindered his progress as an international cricketer to a great extent. Having been left out of the T20I team for the Ireland series, Iyer’s future in T20Is looks gloomy at the moment.