- Mar 4, 2024
- Sep 24, 2023
Shreyas Iyer and his struggle against short-pitch bowling are widely known in the entire cricketing fraternity. The minute the batter walks out to bat the bowling team starts bowling short deliveries and exposes his weakness. The same happened during the fifth Test between India and England at Edgbaston.
As soon as Iyer walked out to bat, the English bowlers started bowling a barrage of bouncers with a packed field on the leg-side. The Kolkata captain finally pulled one to mid-wicket after scoring a few boundaries.
Iyer walked out to bat on the score of 153/4 with India 286 runs ahead of England. The 27-year-old batter looked to add runs to the scoreboard quickly and set a big target for England to chase in the fourth innings. Seeing Iyer enjoying his stay at the crease, England head coach Brendon Mccullum who was also the former coach of the Kolkata franchise quickly gestured a ‘change of plan’ from the dressing room.
Brendon McCullum straightaway told England to go for the short ball tactic against Shreyas Iyer. pic.twitter.com/rMGluifmMM
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) July 4, 2022
Decoding Mccullum’s gestures, it seemed as if he asked the bowlers to keep bowling short with a packed leg-side field. The ploy worked as Iyer was sent back to the pavilion after scoring 19 off 26 balls. The batsman also got out to the short-ball in the first innings as well when he edged a bouncer going down the leg side to the wicket-keeper Sam Billings.
https://twitter.com/englandcricket/status/1543932863287988225?t=_7yZlqqWN6-VYIzgTdONmg&s=19
India have set a target of 378 runs for England in the fourth innings. England would be happy to bundle out India for 245 after they were 125 for the loss of 3 wickets. England would fancy their chances of chasing the target as they recently chased down 3 totals in excess of 275 in the recently concluded series against New Zealand. The Test match is heading toward an exciting finish on Day 5 with all three results possible. Fans would be hoping to see this game go right down the wire. As a matter of fact, the English openers have started on a positive note.