Shreyas Iyer made a strong case of becoming Rohit Sharma's successor as India's full-time captain with his tactical brilliance as a captain for KKR against RCB in the IPL 2022 match on Wednesday.
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When Virat Kohli stepped down as the white-ball captain and later quit his role from red-ball captaincy, the Board of Control For Cricket in India (BCCI), had a simple task of assigning Rohit Sharma as his successor. Even though the BCCI were seemingly mulling over split captaincy roles in white and red ball captain over the years, appointing Rohit as the successor of Kohli, looked like a fair and obvious choice due to his experience and proven abilities as a part-time captain for India and his success rate in the IPL
However, the BCCI, might land in a problem of plenty when there comes a time to decide a successor for Rohit with KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant (partly in the developing process) all being a contender to take up the role. But as far as tactically maneuvering a team is concerned, through the odds, Iyer looks way ahead of his Indian compatriots who are leading their respective sides in the IPL.
READ MORE: IPL 2022: Karthik, Patel guide Royal Challengers Bangalore to thrilling victory
RCB on Wednesday, very much, won the match soon after bundling out KKR for 128 runs at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai. The cricketing history might have seen low-total being defended but with the likes of in-form Faf du Plessis, Kohli, hard-hitting Sherfane Rutherford and veteran wicket keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik in the RCB line-up, it looked the target could be chased down with five overs to spare.
But Iyer had other plans! It might not have turned into a match-winning effort but, nonetheless, the encounter turned out into a low-scoring thriller much to the delight of the fans and critics alike.
Iyer, much like Rohit, likes to empower his players and the faith shown by him allowed KKR to bundle out the RCB top three — du Plessis, Anuj Rawat and Kohli — within 17 runs to make the match more interesting and less lopsided.
“Before getting in, I spoke with my boys and told them that this game is going to define our character and attitude on the field no matter we defend or not. The way we fight it on the ground, that is really going to reflect our mentality in the next few games,” Iyer explained at the post-match interview.
“I am really proud of the way we played this game and took it till the last over.”
Reflecting on thoughts put by Iyer, it was not by sheer luck, but perseverance and the mentality he imbibed in his players before the second innings that the low-scoring match went all the way to the wire.
Another glimpse of Iyer’s tactical genius was visible after the chase went past the 15th over. Now consider this: Iyer saved his most economical bowler — Sunil Narine — for the 16th over which further helped KKR remain in the contest. He was, then, seen bringing in his mid-on and mid-off fielder closer inside the circle to stop the singles. He relied and showed faith in all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer to bowl his first over of the match in the death and he delivered and with no option in hand he handed over the final over to Andre Russell who looked to have picked up a niggle.
The match, meanwhile, might have won on the pitch by the opposition but the scorecard clearly showed the approach and mindset of the KKR captain who could well be considered as the successor of Rohit for India.
