"He's aware he might not start" - Dinesh Karthik opines on Shreyas Iyer's place for 2022 T20 World Cup

Dinesh Karthik believes that Shreyas Iyer, with his recent showings against Sri Lanka, has booked a spot in India's 2022 T20 World Cup squad. Karthik on Sunday said Shreyas is aware that he might not be a part of the playing 11 in the tournament, but added that he's still done enough to get on the flight to Australia.

Batting at Virat Kohli's usual position at No.3, Shreyas played two back-to-back unbeaten, match-winning knocks - 57 (28) and 74 (44) - in the first two T20Is against Sri Lanka. However, the 27-year-old got to play in this series only because Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and Suryakumar Yadav were all absent. When they return, Shreyas might have to relegate back to the position of a reserve top-order batter.

Speaking on the subject after the second T20I, Karthik told Cricbuzz:

"I think he's aware at the back of his mind that he might not start at the World Cup. But, see, the first step is to put a seat on that flight and he for sure with these performances guarantees a strong place and a strong contention."

In the same interaction, former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan also concurred with Karthik. Khan feels Shreyas has shown maturity, situational awareness, a sense of responsibility and adaptability in the series so far. According to him, these traits will give the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain some "extra cushion" for Australia.

Khan said:

"He certainly has. There's no doubt about it. When you have such consistent performances, you can't really ignore the quality of the player... Number 3 is a very crucial position as well. When you have a chance and you play in this fashion it really adds a lot of value. A lot of maturity has been seen through these innings. It's about understanding what's the situation of the game, how are you going to approach it. All those things Shreyas ticked nicely. And today I like the approach in terms of countering the bowling. It wasn't about approaching every innings in the same fashion..."

He added:

"When you have finished the game, stayed there till the end, and not just crossed a milestone and say 'I've had a great day out there and I can take more chances.' Finishing the game really really counts and he was able to do that. Full marks to him for having that kind of approach... These things will matter for him going forward and will give him that added cushion for Australia."

Shreyas has had to miss a lot of chances in the past few months due to injuries and COVID-19. This series is the first time he's put his hand up and challenged Pant and Yadav for their middle-order positions. Skipper Rohit Sharma also admitted on Sunday that he "couldn't have asked anything more" from Shreyas.

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"Everybody is performing" - Dinesh Karthik on why IPL 2022 will be 'heavily contested

Karthik also saw India's dominance in this series and the consistent performances of players from various IPL franchises as an indication of the competitiveness of IPL 2022. He explained:

"I think every franchise has a couple of players in the Indian team and everybody is happy. You take Rajasthan Royals they'll be very happy with how Sanju Samson went, Ravindra Jadeja will keep every Chennai fan smiling all the way... Harshal Patel's form is phenomenal for RCB. The beauty of this team is players play for different franchises but almost everybody is performing [for India together]."

Karthik added:

"There isn't a single person you can point out and say 'he's going through a rough patch right now.' It's obviously going to be heavily contested IPL..."

The IPL 2022 season is slated to kick off on March 26, reportedly with a match between Shreyas' KKR and Rohit's Mumbai Indians.