The 24-year-old Shreyas Iyer, who made his debut in 2017 in a T20I match against New Zealand, also talked about his first meeting with Rahul Dravid.
India's Shreyas Iyer celebrates his 100 runs during the first One Day International cricket match between New Zealand and India at Seddon Park in Hamilton on February 5, 2020. (Photo by MICHAEL BRADLEY / AFP)
Shreyas Iyer, who looks to have cemented his place as the solution to India’s longstanding headache of number four in limited-overs cricket, has revealed that the thoughts of leading the Men in Blue has crossed his mind.
Iyer, who is the captain of Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, meanwhile, also admitted that he has not given the thought of becoming India’s captain serious attention and said that he wanted to enjoy the ongoing phase first.
“Yes I have. I have not given a thought about it at the moment. I am thinking about the present. Not thinking much about my captaincy in the future. I just want to be in the moment and enjoy it right now,” Iyer was seen saying during a chat show on Cricbuzz.
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The 24-year-old, who made his debut in 2017 in a T20I match against New Zealand, also talked about his first meeting with Rahul Dravid after which he got rid of his ‘see the ball, hit the ball’ philosophy.
“It was a four-day match and Rahul Dravid was seeing me for the first time. It was first day’s last over. I was batting on 30 or something, so everyone thought [that since] it is the last over I’ll play out the over, I’ll play it carefully and finish it. Rahul Dravid sir was sitting inside. He [the bowler] bowled a flighted delivery, so I stepped out and hit it in the air. It went high up in the air and it was a six. Everyone in the dressing room came out running, they were looking up, and thinking who plays the last over like this.
“That day he [Rahul Dravid] judged me for how I am. He came to me and he was like “Boss! What is this? [It is the] day’s last over and you’re doing this?” But later on, I started realising about what he was trying to say,” said Iyer.
After his T20I debut, the Mumbai cricketer was picked up for his first ODI match as well. However, he remained in and out of the squad and had failed to make it to last year’s World Cup squad.
But following the marquee event, where India’s number four problem was exposed embarrassingly, Iyer came as a boon to Virat Kohli’s team and has not looked back since then. He scored his first century in the ODI series against New Zealand in February.
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