Dubai, Feb 7 (IANS) Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting expressed his elation on Shreyas Iyer’s much-awaited return to India’s ODI set-up in the series opener against England in Nagpur on Thursday.
Iyer not only grabbed the opportunity with both hands but also reminded one and all of his attacking play and fearless approach. Playing in India colours after almost five months, Iyer started from where he left and slammed 59 off 36 balls studded with nine fours and two sixes. He batted at a strike rate of 163.88 to send English bowlers to cleaners as India won the match by four wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-ODI series.
With the Champions Trophy around the corner, Iyer is making a strong case for himself in the middle order. Iyer was a major factor in India’s run to the final at the ODI World Cup on home soil in 2023, with the right-hander amassing 530 runs during the tournament.
“He’s got the game that will stand up to the white-ball formats, especially in that part of the world,” Ponting said of Iyer, on The ICC Review.
“On those wickets – the slower, lower wickets – he’s dynamic on those. We know how good a hitter of spin bowling he is and teams tend not to bowl a lot of spin at India, but at some stage it’s going to come.
“If Shreyas is out in the middle, then he’s as good as anyone. So I’m delighted to see him back in their team.”
Ponting has been a long-time admirer of Iyer and this showed during the most recent IPL auction when the new Punjab Kings coach splashed Rs 26.75 crore on the hard-hitter to clinch his services from the 2025 season.
The Australian legend’s show of faith from the auction at the end of last year has already been franked, with Iyer having shown glimpses of his best form at the domestic level with two centuries for Mumbai on either side of the new year.
“I’ve been a little bit surprised that he’s been out of India’s side the last couple of years,” Ponting said. “He had a terrific World Cup back in India where he played beautifully in the middle-order and I actually felt then that he’d almost cemented that spot and made that his own. Then he had those couple of injuries, obviously injured his back and went out of the side, but his domestic season this year has been brilliant. It sort of coincided with what he’s done since around (IPL) auction time going forward in domestic cricket, he has been pretty much outstanding,” he added.
–IANS
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