Asia Cup 2023: Shreyas Iyer not fully fit, unavailable for Sri Lanka Super Four clash

Shreyas Iyer will not play in India's Asia Cup Super Four stage game against Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed. He suffered a sudden back injury and is currently under remote monitoring by the BCCI medical team and the National Cricket Academy (NCA) staff and the Indian team management.

According to a spokesperson, Shreyas experienced a back spasm during the warm-up ahead of India's first Super Four stage match against arch-rivals Pakistan. He was forced to be left out of the playing XI against Pakistan and the team decided to include KL Rahul. Notably, Rahul was one of the stand-out players in the high-pressure match, scoring a century and helping India to register a comfortable 228-run win. 

"And then KL, to return from injury and then find out 5 minutes before the toss that he's playing, and to perform the way he did, it shows the mindset of the player," Rohit Sharma said during the post-match presentation.

Iyer is anticipated to be available for selection for the remaining Asia Cup games, and there are currently no plans to send him back at this time. Discussions regarding resting some players for the game against Sri Lanka since India would be playing back-to-back games for three days. However, the team management is likely to stick with the same starting lineup that faced Men in Green.

UPDATE - Shreyas Iyer is feeling better but is yet to fully recover from back spasms. He has been adviced rest by the BCCI Medical Team and has not travelled with the team to the stadium today for India's Super 4 match against Sri Lanka.#AsiaCup2023 pic.twitter.com/iIDJEWZBea

— BCCI (@BCCI) September 12, 2023

It took me 10-15 balls to just calm myself down: KL Rahul 

KL Rahul reflected on his magnificent innings against Pakistan, stating that his initial nervousness vanished after facing the first 10-15 balls. He scored an unbeaten 111 off 106 balls, including 12 boundaries and two maximums.

"Obviously, this is my first international match after a long time. I played a couple of practice games, but we all know the intensity is not the same. So when I walked in, I had that initial nervousness. It took me 10-15 balls to just calm myself down and get my feet moving, get my mind thinking of the right things. Then, when I hit one or two boundaries, all those things, the fogginess in your clarity, went away, and it became like before. I was looking at the ball, looking at the situation, and you see what you have to do. But just when I got my rhythm, it started raining," Rahul told Star Sports.

Check: IND vs SL Live Match Updates