Shreyas Iyer joins the Team India ahead of the 4th Test against Australia

The action and focus moves to the hills of Himachal Pradesh as both the teams are in Dharamsala for the final Test. While Team India after an initial blip in the Pune Test has made a strong comeback in the series they have possibly been hit by an injury concern a couple of days ahead of the match. Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer will join the Indian team for the 4th Test as a cover for skipper Virat Kohli.

Virat had injured his shoulder in the third Test at Ranchi while fielding in the first inning and didn’t walk out for the entire inning. He had a good couple of days of rest and then batted at his regular No.4 spot but had a shorter stay and returned to lead the team on the field in the last two days of the game.

The team management isn’t 100% sure about the captain’s fitness yet and the picture will be clearer by Friday, the eve of the game. Since Dharamsala is towards the northern end of the country and logistically a tough location to reach at a short notice Iyer had been flown in and will join the team tomorrow (March 24).

“It made sense to have a back-up batsman because in case of a contingency it is very difficult to reach a place like Dharamsala,” a BCCI source was quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “We will know more on Virat tomorrow.”

Iyer has been among the top run-getters in the Ranji Trophy for the last three seasons since making his debut for Mumbai. He scored 809 runs in the 2014-15 season, in the following season he put up an even better show to collect 1321 runs and lead the list of the highest run-scorers. In the recently concluded 2016-17 season of the Ranji Trophy Iyer accumulated 725 runs and topped it up by scoring an unbeaten 202 from 210 balls against the visiting Australian team in a practice game.

He has been a part of Rahul Dravid’s India A team and has scored runs there as well on overseas tours and home series’. His selection in the national team was awaited since he touched the 1300-run mark in 2015-16 Ranji season as he was only the second batsman there after VVS Laxman and ended the season in touching distance from the all-time record.