DC are mighty pleased to have their former skipper Shreyas Iyer back after a six-month absence due to a shoulder injury ahead of the UAE leg of the Premier League.
The Capital’s vital middle-order player and their active skipper until last season,missed the first half of the tournament after hurting his shoulder during an ODI against England in March just prior to the start of IPL 2021.
The player then had to go through an extensive rehab for his injury, also missing India’s tour of Sri Lanka and his List A stint with English county stint Lancashire. But upon recovery, Iyer was one of the first from DC camp to reach UAE and start preparing for the remaining games of his team’s campaign.
“I am absolutely delighted to have Shreyas back into our line-up. It was devastating for him and the team when he hurt his shoulder just before the start of the IPL earlier in the year.”
said Ponting in a media interaction, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Ponting added Iyer is a “world-class player”, who slots right back into the DC’s playing XI and is someone who makes the team’s line-up look a “little bit more complete” with his presence.
Interestingly, despite such high praise from the coach and talks of indispensability to the team, DC think-tank decided to keep Rishabh Pant as their captain rather than bringing Iyer back to the helm of affairs.
Iyer, who first took over the captaincy duties of the side back in 2018, led the Delhi franchise to their best result in IPL history last year when they reached the final of the IPL 2020 in Dubai, losing to Mumbai Indians .
Recently, it was confirmed that he won’t be reinstated to the captaincy post, and Pant, who had replaced him in his forced absence early this year, will continue to lead the franchise.
Second-placed DC will resume their IPL 2021 campaign on September 23 in Dubai against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. They won six games and lost two during the Indian leg of the competition.
