Indian captain Shreyas Iyer has opened up on the teen batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi not getting a chance in the XI in the just-concluded five-match T20I series against the West Indies at home, which ended 2-2.
Speaking at the pre-series press conference ahead of the first T20I against New Zealand, Iyer advised Sooryavanshi to be patient for his opportunity and backed him to learn about the New Zealand conditions during his time with the squad.
“It is important that a talent like him is always happy in the dressing room, and he is really young. He has many more years to get an opportunity. It is not as if he can walk straight into this team, because our openers are also scoring consistently and they have won us the World Cup also. If you look at it, whenever we come overseas, he will get a fair idea of how to play here. So next time when he comes in these conditions, he will be well prepared,” Shreyas Iyer said during the pre-series press conference.
Shreyas Iyer emphasised the importance of being flexible with batting positions according to the team’s requirements, pointing out that while several batters in the squad might struggle to play aggressively in the lower order, he is comfortable batting at any position. He further explained that batting positions should be determined by the conditions and match situations.
“I feel you should be flexible with what the team demands in a particular situation. If we look at here, we have so many batters who cannot be so destructive in the lower order, but I feel that I can bat at any number, depending on the situation. If you see in the last World Cup, Ishan Kishan was batting consistently at No.3 and he is the No.1 ranked batter right now. I don’t force myself to push for the top order, but if we look at it, every individual in the team has to be flexible,” Shreyas Iyer said.
“The conditions will demand it, the situation will demand it, and you will have to be happy with whatever number you get. It cannot be that one player can only play in one particular position,” he added.
