You would be forgiven to believe that Shreyas Iyer was batting in Australia or West Indies today, facing lanky fast bowlers bowling at over 145 if you looked only at his shots and his movement in the crease.
But no – Iyer was facing a 39-year-old, a 36-year-old and a 23-year-old who is only into his second month of Test cricket, neither of them hardly bowling over 135-140 KPH. Barely even touching these speeds in conditions where the ball was moving sideways and the pitch not offering any great deal of bounce.
Shreyas Iyer gets to another short ball
Shreyas Iyer’s weakness to the short ball is so proclaimed, so well-documents and renowned – not least by his former KKR coach who is now in the opposition England camp – that James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Matthew Potts didn’t have any doubts in their plans to go short against Iyer even with their medium pace.
For Iyer’s dismissal in the first innings – out to a short ball fending away on the leg-side into the wicket-keeper’s gloves – further emboldened the English seamers to go for this ploy as soon as he arrived at the crease.
And Iyer knew it too – that one of those short balls will succumb him, so he made a conscious effort to score runs almost every time the ball was, well, not short. He collected three boundaries- all on the offside with hard flashes and drives. But he was like a cat on a hot tin roof whenever the pacers dug short; anything into his body, on rib-cage height, was dealt with immense strain and difficulty.
He was hopping, skipping, jumping, moving around – not quite the “dance” moves that he does often in white-ball cricket though, but was clearly struggling and uncomfortable to the back-of-length and bouncers.
Eventually, as predicted by everyone – Iyer got out to a short ball, from Potts, unable to keep his eyes on the ball while playing the pull shot and hitting it only as far as Anderson at mid-wicket.
Here’s the dismissal:
Fell into the trap
Scorecard/Clips: https://t.co/jKoipF4U01
#ENGvIND
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 4, 2022
Netizens anticipated English seamers to bowl short at him, many even felt he will get out to one. And he did. And came out the criticism – deservedly – memes and questions about his Test career outside Asia.
Here are some of the tweets trolling Shreyas Iyer:
Shami,Bumrah >>> pic.twitter.com/kyZ1BEHgeS
— Shivani (@meme_ki_diwani) July 4, 2022
Short girls are cute. But Shreyas Iyer won’t date them.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) July 4, 2022
Shreyas iyer in Australia would be incredibly funny ngl
— Will (@WSArcher_) July 4, 2022
Brendon McCullum straightaway told England to go for the short ball tactic against Shreyas Iyer. pic.twitter.com/rMGluifmMM
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) July 4, 2022
Mohammad Shami has looked more assured against short pitch bowling than Shreyas Iyer.
— The Joker (Dr Taylor’s Version) (@Jokeresque_) July 4, 2022
6.5 average vs short balls for Iyer, wow that’s way lesser than I thought it would be.
— Prashanth S (@ps_it_is) July 4, 2022
The short ball once again gets the better of Shreyas Iyer. He really needs to work on his game against short deliveries. #ENGvIND
— Subhayan Chakraborty (@CricSubhayan) July 4, 2022
Shreyas Iyer against short ball
— Vedant Vashist (@thatcrickettguy) July 4, 2022
Hard to see Shreyas Iyer being in the XI when the first choice players are available with such an obvious weakness to short balls.
— couch (@cricketcouch) July 4, 2022
Shreyas Iyer shows better footwork in his reels than batting.
— Savage (@arcomedys) July 4, 2022
Iyer dismissed for a short ball! pic.twitter.com/0AEZRahVGb
— JC (@jc_writes_) July 4, 2022
Shami likely to become Shreyas Iyer batting coach to teach him how to play short balls
— Pushkar (@musafir_hu_yar) July 2, 2022
Me: Not sure I’ll ever see anyone worse against the short ball than Michael Bevan
Shreyas Iyer: Hold my beer…
— Kevin Framp (@BigKev67) July 4, 2022
Iyer and the short ball need a counselor. The relationship is a wreck.
— KSR (@KShriniwasRao) July 4, 2022
England players were laughing after taking the wicket of Iyer
— India Fantasy (@india_fantasy) July 4, 2022
Getting Iyer out has been easier than shooting Fish in a barrel.
Reminded me of Rahane’s dismissal to Wagner in WTC Final where Rahane pulled one to exactly the fielder who had been put there for him just one delivery before the dismissal.#ENGvsIND
— Akash Kumar Jha (@Akashkumarjha14) July 4, 2022
