Shreyas Iyer Not Satisfied With Victory vs Pakistan In Champions Trophy 2025 For This Surprising Reason

India’s dominance in the ODI format is such in recent times that their middle order batter, Shreyas Iyer, is not happy with the side’s performance against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy, despite their convincing win by six wickets in hand and 45 balls to spare.

The blue brigade came into the event with their recent three-match ODI clean sweep over England at home, where the batters and bowlers enjoyed their time in the middle. Their victory over Bangladesh in the very first game of the competition showed the strong depth of the side.

Shreyas Iyer’s performance in the recent ODIs

It was a huge surprise for many fans and pundits of the game when Shreyas Iyer revealed that it might not feature in the opening ODI against England Nagpur had Virat Kohli not picked up the last-minute injury. He ended up with a match-winning half-century in the chase.

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Iyer continued the same form in the third game of the series at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Mumba batter failed with 15 runs in 17 balls against Bangladesh but again made a statement with 56 runs in 67 balls, shouldering on five boundaries and one six, against Pakistan in Dubai.

It was Shreyas’ 26th ODI half-century after 62 ODI innings, which is the most for any non-opening batter in the same period, with Kane Williamson sitting at the second position in the chart with 22 fifties. It’s crazy to believe how the side has struggled to fit the middle-order batter in the side despite his 530 runs in the ODI World Cup 2023 at a strike rate of 113.74.

“We could have won a bit earlier”- Shreyas Iyer

The Mumbai-born arrived at the press conference with a smile after their victory against the arch-rivals, which has almost booked their place in the semifinal of the eight-team tournament.

“Can you just tell me how many overs were left? Forty-five balls? Okay. I think we could have won a bit earlier. It would have been a convincing win.” Shreyas Iyer expressed this during the press conference.

There was no stage in the 242-run chase in which the blue brigade appeared troubled and almost no stage in the first innings in which they appeared capable of getting to score to make it hard for India.

“But if we could have played more aggressively, we could have won a bit earlier.” Iyer, who nailed 56 runs in 67 balls, noted.

The batter had an excellent battle with the leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed, who was the peak of the bowlers for Pakistan, with 1/28 in ten overs, as he bowled a nearly unplayable delivery to dismiss Shubman Gill.

“I think Abrar bowled brilliantly. I needed to play out that spell and rotate the strike at the same time. It took some time, and then once my eyes were set, I thought that sweep and reverse sweep would have been a great option to put them on the back foot. And I think that worked pretty well for me.” Shreyas Iyer elaborated.

Shreyas Iyer focuses on attacking batting for ODI success

This is the second consecutive game for India at this venue, and Iyer reckons that the pacers, taking the pace off, have enjoyed the conditions.

“It's important to attack, but it's not easy to go in and straightaway start smashing the ball. You need to see the pace of the wicket and how it's coming onto the bat. If you show that intent every ball, it's difficult for a batsman, to be honest.” Shreyas Iyer highlighted.

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In India’s low target of 242 runs, Iyer was slow to get the innings on with 12 runs off the first 28 deliveries that he faced, but he felt that it was vital for them to see the pace of the surface.

“It's important to attack, but it's not easy to go in and straightaway start smashing the ball. You need to see the pace of the wicket and how it's coming onto the bat. If you show that intent every ball, it's difficult for a batsman, to be honest.” Shreyas Iyer concluded.