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In a surprising reveal, Shreyas Iyer said after yesterday’s match that he wasn’t in India’s playing 11 plans for the first 2025 ODI against England until Virat Kohli’s late knee injury.
Shreyas Iyer. (Sportzpics Photo)
In a surprising reveal, Shreyas Iyer said on Thursday that he wasn’t in India’s plan for the first 2025 ODI against England in Nagpur had Virat Kohli not picked up a late knee injury on Wednesday. The right-hander, who scored an impactful 59 (36) at number four in India’s four-wicket win, said he had to cut short his movie night when skipper Rohit Sharma called him to inform him that he’d play about Kohli’s unavailability.
As Kohli was out with injury and Yashasvi Jaiswal was given his debut for the match, many observers and pundits assumed that it was a straight swap. Afterall, Iyer effectively solved India’s famous ‘number four’ problem in ODIs, scoring 1397 runs with four centuries and an average of 51.74.
“As you all know I wasn’t supposed to play today. Virat unfortunately got injured and then I got the opportunity. I kept myself prepared. I knew that at any point of time I can get a chance to play. The same thing happened with me last year as well during the Asia Cup. I got injured and someone else came in and scored a century,” Iyer said after the match on Thursday, in a chat with Star Sports.
“So, funny story,” he added. “I was watching a movie last night, I thought I could extend my night, but then I got a call from skipper saying that you may play because Virat has got a swollen knee. And then [I] hurried back to my room, went off to sleep straightaway.”
India only played three ODIs last year, against Sri Lanka, where new head coach Gautam Gambhir tried different batting combinations. Before that, Iyer was one of India’s best batters in the 2023 World Cup, scoring 468 runs at 66.25 and a strike rate of 113.24, with two hundred, including a 70-ball 105 in the semi-final against the Men in Blue’s bogey team, New Zealand.
Iyer’s revelation even caught commentator Parthiv Patel by surprise and made him point, “We didn’t know that actually! We thought that Yashasvi Jaiswal played because Virat got injured. We were sure that you were going to find a place in the XI.”
To this, Iyer replied: “You know what you want me to say, but I’m going to keep it low-key and cherish this moment, the victory today.”
The second ODI is on Sunday. It remains to be seen who makes way for Kohli if he comes back into the 11 between Jaiswal (who scored 15 off 22), Iyer or someone else.
