"High time the world starts talking about his strengths"- Mohammad Kaif slams Shreyas Iyer's critics after his fine fifty in IND vs AUS 5th T20I

Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif came out in support of Shreyas Iyer after the star batter's fine half-century against Australia in the fifth T20I in Bengaluru on Sunday, December 10.

Kaif believes there has been a lot of unfair criticism of Iyer's weakness against the short ball and reckons the right-hander deserves to be praised when he does well.

Along with a picture of Iyer, here's what Mohammad Kaif wrote in his post on X (formerly Twitter):

"Shreyas Iyer has had a phenomenal run recently and it should be appreciated. High time the world starts talking about his strengths and not keep pointing to his weakness."

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Shreyas Iyer strengthened his claim for a spot in India's T20 World Cup plans

It wasn't an easy pitch to bat on in Bengaluru, with enough grip available for the spinners. In that situation, scoring 53 runs off 37 balls proved why Iyer could have probably been an underrated shout for the Player of the Match award.

After a long injury lay-off, Iyer came into the 2023 World Cup and smashed a couple of hundreds, including one in the semifinal against New Zealand. He also crossed the 500-run barrier, being the third from his team alongside Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma.

With the pitches in the West Indies aiding spinners, the selectors might have Iyer in their scheme of things and he has certainly not done his chances any harm. It will be interesting to see whether he plays in each of the three T20Is against South Africa later this month.

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India’s squad for 3 T20Is against South Africa: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.