Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav might have been competing for the same middle-order spot in the Indian test team right now, but there was a time when Suryakumar had actually played a crucial role in saving Shreyas Iyer’s red-ball career.
When Iyer was picked in the Mumbai Ranji trophy team back in 2014, he didn’t have a great start and a string of low scores raised question marks over his selection. But, it was Suryakumar Yadav, the captain of Mumbai at that point of time, who ensured Iyer was given an extended run for Mumbai and that’s how Iyer’s first-class career blossomed.
At the end of the second day’s play in the ongoing Kanpur test match between India and New Zealand, BCCI uploaded a video where Iyer and Suryakumar had a chat about the former’s debut in test match cricket and how it felt to be scoring a hundred straightaway in the toughest and the longest format of the game.
Iyer revealed that playing test match cricket for India was always his aim, but his career shaped in a way where he got the opportunity to play limited-over games first, however, he is happy that the opportunity to playtest cricket finally arrived.
Green park stadium is one of the luckiest grounds for me: Shreyas Iyer
Remembering his Mumbai Ranji trophy days, Iyer said it was the same Green Park stadium in Kanpur where he had turned around his Ranji trophy form as well after his initial failures in 2014 and he was able to do so because of the backing he got from Suryakumar.
“My debut Ranji season was under Suryakumar’s captaincy and I would like to thank him for backing him after my first four innings,” Shreyas Iyer said in the video uploaded on the official website of BCCI.
He gave Shreyas a hug 🤗, he clapped for him 👏, he was one of the happiest when his mate scored a hundred 😊.
This interview of @ShreyasIyer15 with @surya_14kumar is all heart. 👍 👍 – By @28anand
Full interview 🎥 🔽 #TeamIndia #INDvNZ @Paytm https://t.co/CR0rOtTXiu pic.twitter.com/y1cFU18qB5
Advertisement— BCCI (@BCCI) November 26, 2021
Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav were both in line to play at no. 5 for India in the Kanpur test match, but the team management decided to go with Shreyas as he was originally picked in the squad, while Suryakumar was included as a replacement of KL Rahul.
