New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) India captain Shreyas Iyer credited his long-time mentor and former Indian assistant coach Abhishek Nayar for helping him improve and correct his mistakes and produce a match-winning performance after smashing his maiden T20I century against West Indies in the opening game of the five-match series on Tuesday.
Iyer struck an unbeaten 102 off just 43 balls, including 10 fours and six sixes, as India chased down 172 in only 14.4 overs to take a 1-0 lead at the BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium. The knock came at an important juncture for Iyer, who had been struggling to convert starts into substantial scores and had breached the 50-run mark only twice since taking over as India’s T20I captain in June.
Reflecting on his innings in a BCCI video, Iyer revealed that a recent conversation with Nayar, who has shared a long-standing coach-mentor relationship with him through Mumbai domestic cricket, Kolkata Knight Riders and the national team setup, proved valuable. “I had a brief interaction with Abhishek Nayar in that period where we were talking about cricket. I think that conversation with him helped me a lot in today’s performance,” Iyer said in a video released by BCCI.
The India skipper said the key to his innings was preparing himself before every delivery and finding his rhythm early. “The key that I observed in my batting today was setting myself before the delivery of the ball, and that worked perfectly. So creating that momentum and rhythm was essential at the start of the innings, and it worked out pretty well,” he said.
Nayar has earlier worked closely with Iyer on technical aspects of his batting as well as during different phases of his comeback in domestic and international cricket.
Iyer also spoke about the challenge of returning from Japan and immediately adapting to the demands of international cricket.
“I’m very happy; it’s a great start. And especially coming after Japan, forming a solid XI here. It was kind of challenging, but I must say that that’s what we look for when we are playing at this level. We love challenges, and we want to make sure that we are at the top of our game and leave the excuses aside,” he said.
Iyer’s century was the fastest by an Indian against the West Indies in T20Is and made him the third Indian captain to score a century in the format after Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav.
With India now leading the series 1-0, Iyer said the team’s immediate objective was to maintain the momentum and complete a series victory. “I would be extremely happy if we win the series. Obviously we started on a great note, and if we finish with a victory going forward in the next four games, that is what our main goal and target is at the moment,” he said.
Iyer has also surged 18 places to achieve a career-best seventh position in the latest update to the ICC Men’s T20I Batting Rankings following his explosive maiden century.
–IANS
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