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For Shreyas Iyer, 2024 has been like opening a box of chocolates. A decade ago, he would not have known what he would get.
Playing Test cricket, he was dropped from the team early in the year during the home England series. His brief absence from the Ranji Trophy cost him his INR 3 crore BCCI central contract.
However, he came back to lead Mumbai to victory in the Ranji Trophy final, ending KKR’s ten-year losing streak with a knock of 95.
Iyer’s main tasks during this domestic season were to exercise patience, play lengthy innings, and maintain his fitness by participating in a lot of red-ball games. Additionally, Iyer started a run of four scores of 50 or more in 11 innings in five first-class matches that began with the Duleep Trophy in early September. This run culminated in Iyer’s Ranji Trophy century against Maharashtra on Saturday, which came at 142 off 190 balls and featured 12 fours, four sixes, and a couple of short balls. Iyer had not scored a century in first-class cricket for almost three years, since he did it on his Test debut in Kanpur against New Zealand. After completing runs, Iyer states that he is “absolutely keen for a comeback” and that his back is 100% fine.
Calling the century “special,” Iyer said: “Coming back after a very long time, obviously I was feeling a bit down with my injuries, but now getting a century after a very long time, it’s a great feeling.
“I am absolutely keen for a [Test] comeback but yeah, as we say, control the controllables and my job is to keep performing and keep participating as much as possible and also see with that my body is in best shape. So I’ll take the best decision possible according to that.”
Iyer disclosed that following his back surgery in the previous year, he experienced a period of uncertainty about the possibility of the injury returning. After recovering from an injury sustained during the Asia Cup of the previous year, he played the home ODI World Cup and two Test matches against England before playing the two Tests in South Africa at the beginning of the current year. At the conclusion of the 2024 Indian Premier League, Iyer had stated that he was “definitely struggling” with his back in the longer format, but that “no one was agreeing” when he brought up the issue.
“Not anymore,” he said. “But there was this phase where I was feeling that it might occur again. But yeah, I trained a lot to see to it that I have optimum fitness and obviously it comes here and there, but now my capacity has improved a lot.”
“The body has taken a lot of load at the same time. So we have to manage here and there and see to it that I strategise in terms of how I play. Now I have to be smart in terms of what decisions I take, I need to see to it that my body is in the best shape possible. As I mentioned previously as well, I have to decide according to that, no matter whatever people think outside. I have to listen to my body because I know the amount of threshold carried over the last few years and based on that, I’ll be taking the right decision, and I hope that my team will also back [that].”