Shreyas Iyer has had a prolific year as a T20 batsman. After Rohit Sharma’s blitzkrieg all but won the match for India against Bangladesh at Rajkot on Thursday, Iyer stroked an unbeaten 24 off 13 deliveries and during the course of that brief stint at the crease, he became the first Indian and the 14th player in the world to score 1000 T20 runs in 2019.
At Rajkot, the 24-year-old got off the mark in style, slamming a six off the second ball he faced after replacing Rohit Sharma at the crease. Later he struck three crisp boundaries off the medium pacers- a ramp shot over third-man, a wristy flick to fine-leg and a regal square drive, before scoring the winning runs.
He was equally impressive in his cameo in the opening match of the series at Delhi, scoring at a strike-rate of over 150.
The top-order batsman who captains Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, had a good season with the franchise, finishing with 463 runs in 14 games. He also scored three half-centuries as skipper in this campaign.
Shreyas Iyer batting for the Capitals
At the start of the year, Iyer set the record for the highest T20 score by an Indian batsman, when he struck a 55-ball 147 for Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Indore. He struck 15 sixes and seven fours while plundering 35 runs off a single over during the course of the innings.
His penchant for hitting sixes is similar to Rohit Sharma’s and he is India’s most prolific six-hitter in T20 cricket this year.
Most T20 sixes in 2019 (Indians)
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) November 8, 2019
53 - Shreyas Iyer
36 - Rishabh Pant
32 - Nitish Rana
31 - Hardik Pandya/KL Rahul
28 - MS Dhoni
27 - Rohit Sharma
Shreyas Iyer is certainly a star in the making and India will do well to give the youngster more opportunities at the top of the order in limited-overs cricket.
