Runs and ruins at Duleep Trophy: Shreyas Iyer needs mountain of runs to surge back from the fringes | Cricket News

Relatable to the arid expanse that surrounds the Rural Development Trust Ground of Anantapur has been the fate of Shreyas Iyer. The Duleep Trophy was deemed as Iyer’s comeback path, after he was nudged out of the national team a combination of his technical fallibilities as well as the intense jostle for a toehold in the middle order. But rather than maximising the granted opportunity to hoard runs and push his comeback file, his stocks, dry as the parched farmlands that dot the drict, have magnificently sunk.
His four innings in the second driest drict in the country, which gets on an average 34 days of rainfall a year, has fetched him just 104 runs. The details paint a grimmer picture of the uncertain mindset that has clutched him. Thrice, seamers nailed him and once a spinner claimed him. None of them were unplayable balls; none of them were the short-length kryptonite, at least two of them were of softer nature, and twice he perished after looking reasonably well-settled. So much so that, when watched in isolation and not seen through the prism of his recent drought, his 54 and 41 were not exactly specimens of struggles. In both outings, he has looked fairly comfortable, before playing injudicious strokes to flounder.
An arm-ball from the under-appreciated Shams Mulani split through his legs. In real time it looked like the ball had kept low. But it was an illusion his back-foot drag created. It was a classic instance of misjudgment, where the ball came out fuller than he had anticipated and ricocheted off his open left-foot to hit the stumps. Baited a spinner might have hurt him, because in a fine mood, he is an undurbed destroyer of them.
The promising 54, off 44 balls, ended when he looked to force the strapping Anshul Kambhoj through mid-on and the ball stopped a fraction at him. Before the lapse, he had unfurled air-borne drives through the off-side, shots that stung the turf like the crack of a rifle. It has not been so much a case of him looking wretched as it has been a matter of his concentration snapping and the mind slipping into confusion.
At times, he looks like he has a definite plan to reverse his fallow patch. That is to attack his way back. It could be a rewarding ploy, but only if one knows to differentiate the thin margin between looking silly and aggressive. It’s also symptomatic of those batsmen too desperate to prove oneself too hard. Once the methods begin to tick, the rush of blood pushes out common sense. But the positive is that Iyer would know that he is not ploughing through as horrible a patch as the cynics believe. Unless he scores a big one, the judgement will pers.
Old short-ball flaws
However, the glaring old short-ball flaw perss. Almost every movement he makes when facing seamers is a reaction to it. He has had a tendency to hang back, waiting on the back-foot for that extra second to defang it. In the process, he has compromised his biggest strength when facing seamers, his ability to stride out those long legs and drive through the covers. Before the short balls began to reside rent-free in his head, he was an excellent cutter of the ball too, when he arches his upper body and lets his hands flow.
But the short-ball woe has not only curtailed his off-side fluency but also made him easy to set up. As did Khaleel Ahmed in the now infamous sunglass faux pas. The build-up was too simple and basic. The first two were back of length of ball (both he defended on the back foot), the third (he was beaten) and fifth (ducked) were shorter, the fourth (left) and sixth (defended on the back foot) were back of length. The seventh was fuller and he tried to drive, with the weight pinned on the back foot and the front-leg wobbling as he drove.
In his first innings of the tournament too, his front-foot press was timid, as though the good-length caught him in surprise. He could have shouldered arms, but when doubt-ridden, batsmen invariably get sucked into the temptation of feeling the ball. Now, in refusing to find a resolute method to resolve the short-ball weakness, he has made himself vulnerable to the full and good length balls too. It’s like the house of cards. You just whisper something at the base and the entire arrangement collapses. One fundamental defect could ruin the entire structure, leading to a chain of errors. Those innings he found starts, he was better organised and less predetermined.

Iyer has two more innings to salvage his Duleep Trophy, and make a last-minute push to reclaim his Test cap. He is in the outer laps of the race but a couple of injuries and a few bad outings for those in the middle order could pave his back. But he needs runs to be in the race. A few spells of rain are forecast this weekend, maybe it is the week Iyer too begins to pour runs.