Shreyas Iyer on Thursday said the current competition in the Indian team demands one to bat at any number after he did not get to play at his usual No 4 spot in the first One-day International against Australia.
Iyer returned to India’s limited overs set-up following the 2019 World Cup and has done well at No 4. However, he was pushed down to No 5 on Tuesday as skipper Virat Kohli came at four to accommodate specialist openers KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan in the playing eleven. The move failed badly as India lost the game by 10 wickets.
“In this situation, you should be ready to bat at any number because it is really important to play in the team, [considering] the competition we have now right now,” 25-year-old Iyer said.
In Mumbai, India suffered a middle-order collapse as Dhawan, Rahul, Kohli and Iyer fell in quick succession. The Mumbai batsman also said that the team is looking forward to more experimentation.
Iyer said: “We can’t give any reasons of batting at any particular number. Yes, it is really important for us to be focused and not to cry about why we haven’t been batting at a similar position.
“Experimentation is something we are looking forward to. Hopefully, we will get a good number for each batsman. This is the time we should try and experiment things and hopefully it will work out in the future.”