Why Shreyas Iyer is living on borrowed time in the England series

Kevin Pietersen was raging. “Listen, when Kohli comes back and other guys come back [KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja] and these are the days these boys are going to look back and go, ‘oh why did I not get a hundred? I had the opportunity to get the hundred’. And when you are sloppy like that, getting out doesn’t impress me at all,” the former England batsman, and now television pundit, fumed after the first innings in the second Test at Vizag. His anger was directed at India’s No.4 for the game Shreyas Iyer

Now, even without Virat Kohli playing, but the “other guys” returning, the pressure is still on Iyer. Luckily for him, his contender Rajat Patidar didn’t make it count either and the shootout between the two for a spot in the team when the third Test swings into action in Rajkot on February 15 will be interesting. With Rahul’s return, India might want the more overtly aggressive Iyer in the mix but you never know. That it has come to this is Iyer’s own making.

One thing is clear from his brief Test career. He is not going to look ‘composed’ or show ‘hunger’ or not be ‘sloppy’ in traditional terms as Pietersen wishes. That doesn’t seem his way. As a batsman he puts himself in unique positions that can bewilder even former cricketers, let alone the fans.