I’m going to play attacking irrespective of situation: Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer reacted after Mumbai’s win over Andhra in the ongoing Ranji Trophy at MCA Cricket Ground in Maharashtra, stating to play attacking cricket whatever the situation is. The star India batter has made a comeback to India’s premier domestic competition after five years.

Iyer, who is gearing up for the five-match Test series against England, warmed up with a run-a-ball 48 for Mumbai. He added that he was happy with his knock regardless of the score.

“I’m going to play attacking irrespective of the situation. And also when you bowl negative, when you bowl safe and defensive at the start, you want to score runs and you need to take your team through up to a certain point. So that was my mindset and that’s why stuck with. Yeah, I was happy [with my knock] irrespective of the score,” Shreyas was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

The 29-year-old batted at No. 5 in the first innings after Andhra asked Mumbai to bat first upon winning the toss and it was the only chance he got in the game. He stated that the Andhra bowlers did not allow him to bat to his strengths. Notably, despite the fast bowlers bowling “negative” against him by going around and pitching it short at times, it did not trouble Shreyas as the middle-order batter flicked the full deliveries many of the times.

“[As] I said, they were bowling defensive and they didn’t let me play to my strengths. Even though they started with the short balls, I was able to execute them for boundaries and get a lot of runs out of it. Again, they were bowling negative so there was literally no scope to…other than leaving the ball I couldn’t have done much. I knew that leaving the ball would, to be honest, bore me. I would rather go and play some strokes. That’s what I considered at that point of time,” he added.