India wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik is of the opinion that batter Shreyas Iyer will the best thing in Indian cricket and try to emulate Virat Kohli’s habit of finishing games as per a report.
With their batting heroics, Rohit Sharma and Iyer led India’s remarkable comeback, but Bangladesh dashed the visitors’ hopes by winning the final-over thriller at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday.
Despite suffering a thumb injury in the series finale, Rohit batted brilliantly against Bangladesh. Senior gloveman Karthik praised the Indian captain, saying that batting in injury has earned him a lot of respect as a leader. He also discussed Iyer’s brilliant knock against the Litton Das-led side in the second ODI in Dhaka.
Before Rohit batted at number nine and saved India from a precarious situation, it was Iyer’s lone warrior act in Dhaka that kept the visitors in the hunt. In the recently concluded match, the premier batter smashed a match-changing half-century for the Kohli-led side. Iyer top-scored for India in the series decider, hitting 82 off 97 balls.
In an interview with Cricbuzz following Bangladesh’s famous win over India in the 2nd ODI, Indian wicketkeeper-batter Karthik acknowledged Iyer as the country’s most consistent run-getter in the 50-over format this year.
“I think the way he has played for a period of time has been phenomenal. He has scored 700-plus runs just this year and you can see the confidence. One Day International cricket is something right up his alley, he likes the fact that he can take a few balls and then start launching.
Terrific player of spin and the fact that these days every time he walks in, they test him with short balls and he is coming good, almost every game,”
Karthik said.
Speaking of the in-form Indian batter, Karthik believes Iyer must consistently finish games for Asian giants like run-machine Kohli.
“Yes, he had the odd failure which could be due to a short ball but every time he crosses that you can see he is a man on a mission and he wants to be there for the team at the end. He looked good in this knock, he dominated right through the time he was batting,”
he added.
In 2022, an on-song Iyer surpassed Shikhar Dhawan to become Team India’s leading ODI run-getter. This year, the white-ball maverick has scored over 720 runs in 16 matches for the national team.
