Cricket News

‘They’ll clap but, they won’t spare you’- Madan Lal warns this Indian batsman to work on his weakness

The India vs South Africa T20 series ended in a 2-2 tie after the much-awaited 5^th T20 international got washed out at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The Indian team managed to make a comeback in the series after losing the first two games. The series, however, accentuated team India’s weaknesses in all the departments.

One such player whose performance got under the scanner during the series is Shreyas Iyer. After having a prolific run with the bat against Sri Lanka earlier this year, Iyer was seen struggling against the short balls against the Proteas.

Against South Africa, the star batter managed the scores of 36, 40, 14 and 4; getting out on three out of four occasions to a seamer. The 27-year-old batter hasn’t had that bad a run and is expected to make a strong comeback soon, with a high chance of playing 20-20 world cup later this year. However, former India cricketer Madan Lal feels if Iyer can’t work on his weakness against speedsters before the tournament, then opponents will make his life difficult in Australia.

“In international cricket, if you have a weakness, oppositions will surely go after it (Iyer’s short-ball weakness). Forget that they won’t. Now he has to sort out himself, has to find out a way. Even if he scores a 100, they (Australians) will clap, but they won’t spare you. There is no mercy here. They will keep bowling short to him. With the kind of technology that exists, any team keeps a strong track of the opposition,” Lal told Sports Tak.

Iyer’s struggle against short bowling was evident in the recently concluded Indian T20 league. In the entire season, he lost his wicket thrice against the short ball. He lost his wicket to pace bowlers a total of 5 times in the entire tournament. Iyer missed out on the 20-20 world cup squad last year and will be eager to get a place in the squad this year.