Any pace bowler sees Shreyas Iyer walk into bat and quickly recalls the plan they’d talked about during their team meeting: Short ball. For the short stuff has been Iyer’s nemeses and has brought his downfall so many times.
It has happened numerous times in the past, it happened today in the third T20I between India and New Zealand in Napier, and if Iyer doesn’t get his batting right about this weakness, this is going to continue happening in the future.
While defending a below-par total of 161, New Zealand came out strongly and dismissed the two Indian openers – Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant – for the score of 21/2. Southee, the veteran seamer, was right on the money as he delivered a short ball on off-stump to Shreyas Iyer first up, who had come out to bat at number 4, a position he’d hoped to make his own moving forward.
It was back of length ball from Southee, and the ball kept climbing onto Shreyas Iyer, who tried to ride the bounce and steer it to third man. However, with his weakness to short stuff quite visible and perhaps in his mind too, he can’t get on top and could only guide it timidly to the right of the first slip, where Jimmy Neesham showed sharp reflexes and took the catch with both hands.
Shreyas Iyer, who had scored 13 runs in the previous game, left the field dejected with a golden duck to his name.
Fans on Twitter blew up trolling Shreyas Iyer for once again getting out to a short ball:
There were already questions from fans on Shreyas Iyer’s place in the eleven ahead of Sanju Samson; they came up with more questions after his failure.
“By picking Iyer ahead of Samson the Indian think tank has reiterated that they’ll not learn from their mistakes and they shall never change their approach towards T20,” said former India cricketer Dodda Ganesh.
By picking Iyer ahead of Samson the Indian think tank has reiterated that they’ll not learn from their mistakes and they shall never change their approach towards T20 #DoddaMathu #crickettwitter #NZvIND
— Dodda Ganesh | ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗಣೇಶ್ (@doddaganesha) November 22, 2022
“Short ball bunny,” mocked a fan on Twitter.
Short ball bunny 🐇
Idli iyer.
Short ball pe improvement kyu kre, dhanashree ke sath dance krna hai tow bolo.#iyer #NZvIND #crickettwitter— Invisible Suraj (@Invisible2120) November 22, 2022
Calling Iyer mid is an insult to mids
— Camlin Oil Pastels (@Camlintweets) November 22, 2022
Only Weakness of Shreyas Iyer !!! #NZvsIND pic.twitter.com/h8mMvv2rcD
— D (@A7pha_) November 22, 2022
Shreyas Iyer is a bigger fraud than KL Rahul
— desi mojito 🇮🇳 (@desimojito) November 22, 2022
The shot Iyer got out is how we get slip catching practice in our academy back then.
— Archith (@UtdArc) November 22, 2022
Bcci needs to understand why #SanjuSamson deserves a place in the team inspite of these fools like Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer 🤡#NZvsIND pic.twitter.com/f9yQKKLMgk
— Akshat (@AkshatOM10) November 22, 2022
Teams are now telegraphing their intentions and getting Shreyas Iyer with the short ball. Are Iyer’s short-ball issues more pronounced and enduring than Suresh Raina’s?
— Ayan (@ayan_acharya13) November 22, 2022
Bruh Gill is far better than these gandus man still he won’t get chances. Makes my blood boil. Iyer mc can’t even play bounce
— 🐬 (@Expelliarmus98) November 22, 2022
shreyas iyer’s strategy for facing short balls is just closing his eyes and yelling jai Maharashtra
— (×) (@ffsvirat) November 22, 2022
It’s that short ball again to Shreyas Iyer, out for a duck.
— India Fantasy (@india_fantasy) November 22, 2022
Samson watching mug Iyer getting out 🥲 pic.twitter.com/GVCwCQlM8C
— besharma (@LalithC78842609) November 22, 2022
Shreyas Iyer and Short ball is a horror story which we would watch in every game😭🤬#IndvsNZ
— Srikanth (@KanthuSpeaks) November 22, 2022
