‘Have you seen how many pull shots I’ve scored?’ – Shreyas Iyer’s blunt reply to reporter on issues with short ball

India’s middle order batsman Shreyas Iyer recently got candid in the post-match conference after India beat Sri Lanka by 302 runs on 2 November at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Iyer played a crucial knock for the team as he scored 82 runs off 56 deliveries after hitting the ball for three boundaries and six sixes across the park. 

In the post-match conference, a journalist asked Iyer about his issues with Short Ball, he enquired why has the short ball been a problem for him since the beginning of this ODI World Cup 2023, considering Iyer got dismissed multiple times on the short ball. 

To which Shreyas Iyer replied, “When you say it’s a problem for me, what do you mean? Troubled me? Have you seen how many pull shots I’ve scored, especially that have gone for four? If you’re trying to hit a ball, you’re bound to get out anyway, irrespective of if it’s a short ball, if it’s overpitched. If I get bowled two or three times, you all would say, ‘he can’t play an in-swinging ball, he can’t play a cut if the ball is seaming”.

Shreyas Iyer on playing crucial knocks in Wankhede Stadium 

“We as players, we are bound to get out on any sort of deliveries. You guys have created that mahaul [atmosphere] outside that ‘he can’t play a short ball’, and I feel that people are picking that up every now and then and it plays on your [the media’s] mind regularly, and you keep working on that,” added Iyer. 

“Coming from Mumbai, especially from Wankhede where the bounce is pretty much even, here it bounces way more than any other pitches. I’ve played the majority of my games here, so I know how to tackle it. It’s just that when I go to hit some shots you are bound to get out,” said Shreyas. 

“Sometimes it may work, sometimes it may not, and majority of the times it hasn’t worked for me, maybe that’s the reason you think it’s a problem for me, but in my mind, I know there’s no problem,” he concluded.