"Bachcha ko bahut kaam karna padega": R Sridhar reveals his conversation on Shreyas Iyer with Ravi Shastri

Team India’s former fielding coach R Sridhar recalled an interesting incident involving India batter Shreyas Iyer’s short-ball woes.

Iyer’s struggles with short deliveries are no hidden secret and even the opposition bowlers have been making the most of his weakness to keep the Indian batter in check. In recent times, he was seen getting out to short-pitched deliveries multiple times against England.

Meanwhile, Sridhar recalled what former India coach Ravi Shastri’s reaction was when he saw Iyer being exposed by his weakness against short deliveries in 2018 during the South Africa tour.

Sridhar said that after seeing one of Shreyas’ dismissals, Shastri realized that the 27-year-old batter would have to work very hard against the rising ball.

India's two highest T20I run-scorers in 2022 are not in their Asia Cup squad 👇

Did Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan deserve a spot? pic.twitter.com/67iLpZe5xM

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) August 10, 2022

“Straightaway, Morkel tested him out with a short ball and he fended it to the third man. And Ravi Shastri was sitting beside me. He said, ‘Sri, ye bachcha ko bahut kaam karna padega’ (Sri, this kid will have to work really hard). Ravi Shastri saw just one ball and said that this guy has to work hard against quick, short-pitched bowling,” Sridhar said in a chat with cricket.com.

“Shreyas is not someone who gets a lot of runs on the short ball. Many a time, he has got out gloving the ball to the keeper or caught at midwicket or deep square leg. He’s not like Rohit Sharma, who plunders the bowlers on the short ball, but occasionally gets caught at fine leg,” he added.

Sreedhar believes that once Iyer overcomes his weakness against short-ball, the India batter will be a nightmare for bowlers.

“The day he cracks that code of short pitch bowling, bowlers will have nowhere to bowl to him. He is a very good player of all other stuff. It’s only a matter of time. It’s more of a mental thing than anything else,” Sridhar opined.

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Notably, Iyer had been dropped from India’s Asia Cup squad after a string of low scores against England and West Indies in the shortest format of the game. He was kept on standby according to the official statement.

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