“You guys have created that mahaul outside that ‘he can’t play a short ball’” - Shreyas Iyer hits back at journalist over bouncer query

Team India batter Shreyas Iyer vehemently disagreed with the common observation about his batting that he has a problem playing the short ball. At a press conference following his brilliant 82 off 56 in India’s win over Sri Lanka, the batter directly blamed the media for spreading the “he can’t play a short ball” theory.

The Men in Blue hammered Sri Lanka by a mammoth 302 runs in match number 33 of the 2023 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, November 2. Batting first, India posted 357/8, with Shreyas contributing a superb half-century.

At a post-match press conference, the Team India batter was asked about his troubles against the short ball but he flatly denied that he had any. A journalist began his query by stating:

“The short ball has been a problem for you since the beginning of this World Cup…”

Shreyas, however, cut his question and asked:

“When you say it’s a problem for me, what do you mean?”

The journalist then clarified that it was not a problem exactly, but it had troubled him. The middle-order batter, however, continued to disagree with the reporter and retorted:

“Troubled me? Have you seen how many pull shots I’ve scored, especially that have gone for four? If you’re trying to hit a ball, you’re bound to get out anyway, irrespective of if it’s a short ball, if it’s overpitched. If I get bowled two or three times, you all would say, ‘he can’t play an in-swinging ball, he can’t play a cut if the ball is seaming’".

“We as players, we are bound to get out on any sort of deliveries. You guys have created that mahaul [atmosphere] outside that ‘he can’t play a short ball’, and I feel that people are picking that up every now and then and it plays on your [the media’s] mind regularly, and you keep working on that,” he added.

The 28-year-old has been dismissed by the short ball a number of times across different formats of the game. However, against Sri Lanka on Thursday, he looked in no trouble against rising deliveries.

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“I know how to tackle it” - Shreyas Iyer

Continuing his staunch defense, Shreyas opined that coming from Mumbai and playing a number of games at the Wankhede Stadium, where the ball bounces a fair bit, he knows how to tackle the short ball.

“Coming from Mumbai, especially from Wankhede where the bounce is pretty much even, here it bounces way more than any other pitches. I’ve played the majority of my games here, so I know how to tackle it. It’s just that when I go to hit some shots you are bound to get out," he stated.

"Sometimes it may work, sometimes it may not, and majority of the times it hasn’t worked for me, maybe that’s the reason you think it’s a problem for me, but in my mind I know there’s no problem,” the batter concluded.

Shreyas struck six three fours and six sixes in his fantastic knock against Sri Lanka. One of his sixes - 106 meters - is now the biggest of the tournament.