Competition for batting slots does not worry me: Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer is possibly one of the most prolific batsmen in domestic cricket, with lots of runs under his belt in domestic cricket. The 23-year-old received a call-up to the national side call-up for all three formats in the same calendar year (2017), but is yet to make his Test debut. While he has a couple of stamps on his passport, he hasn’t been given those many numbers of matches to play.

The ODI World Cup is around a year and a half away, before which Iyer would want to make a case for himself in the team. But Virat Kohli has a lot of options for his middle order, read Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav and now even Suresh Raina. But Iyer doesn’t see them as competitors but as an opportunity to fight harder for a spot in the team.

“Competition for a batting slot has never worried me. I would say it always brings the best out of me. For me, battling for a slot is not a threat but an opportunity,” Iyer told PTI after coming back from the South Africa tour. “Also, I should only be looking at improving my game and not think about who are my competitors,” the aggressive batsman added.

Looking forward to learning from Ricky Ponting in IPL

In the six-match ODI series in South Africa, Iyer got to bat in only two games, in which he scored 18 and 30 respectively. The youngster has been retained by Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League and is looking forward to working with Ricky Ponting, who is the head coach. Gautam Gambhir, on the other hand, will be at the helm of the team.

“It will be a great opportunity to interact on batting with someone of Ricky Ponting’s stature. He has an IPL Trophy both as a player and coach. His inputs will be invaluable,” concluded Iyer.