ICC World Cup: Ahead of Sri Lanka clash, Shreyas Iyer’s short ball troubles focal point in India nets

Mumbai: With his vulnerability against the short ball coming to the fore once again, India number four Shreyas Iyer trained with the aim of overcoming his longstanding struggles ahead of the World Cup game against Sri Lanka here on Thursday.

None of the top-order guns — captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill — were in attendance for the optional session. Iyer versus the short ball was the focal point.

The team’s famed bowling attack, which delivered a fabulous 100-run victory over England last Sunday, also opted for rest.

Perched at the top of the World Cup points table and with a spot in the semifinals virtually sealed for Rohit and Co, it is only imperative that the team keeps ironing out the areas of concern along the way.

Iyer’s troubles against the short ball, combined with the lack of big scores as the preferred No 4, is certainly something that the team management and the player want to overcome and it was evident as far as his approach to the session on Tuesday was concerned.

The right-handed batter, who is back to his homeground that he shares with skipper Rohit, Suryakumar Yadav and Shardul Thakur in this Indian squad for the World Cup, faced plenty of short balls from throwdown specialists in the session that lasted for nearly two hours under the sun.

While he did face some local net bowlers to begin with, the focus point of the session soon turned into having Iyer facing innumerable short balls hurled at him by India’s throwdown specialists D Raghavendra, the left-handed Sri Lankan Nuwan Seneviratne and batting coach Vikram Rathour along with a few others.

Having long batting stints on either side of the strip on which India will take on Sri Lanka, Iyer was also seen sporting a chest guard while he kept on pulling and hooking the short balls.

To his credit, Iyer responded deftly with powerful strikes, sending the ball into the stands or clearing the ropes mostly.

Towards the end, Iyer also had India head coach Rahul Dravid feeding him throwdowns and for a change, the batting great also fed a few deliveries to Iyer to drive while the bowling coach Paras Mhambrey watched from a distance.

Also among the throwdown bowlers for Iyer was the team’s fielding coach T Dilip, whose famous award ceremonies for the best fielder after every match have become a unique feature that fans have been glued to.

Iyer fell to the short ball in Dharamsala as well as the last game against England in Lucknow.

Apart from Iyer’s strenuous effort, all-rounder Shardul Thakur also had a long batting session while the others in Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul and Suryakumar had a regulation hit in the nets.

All-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja did more batting practice than bowling.