“There was a lot of talk about dropping me” - Shreyas Iyer picks favorite knock from 2023 ODI World Cup

Team India batter Shreyas Iyer recalled his favorite knock from the 2023 ODI World Cup, ahead of the Men in Blue's return to the format. The middle-order player has been picked in the ODI squad that will face England in a three-match series, before competing in the 2025 Champions Trophy.

Iyer picked his half-century against Sri Lanka in the league stage at the Wankhede Stadium as his favorite knock of the entire tournament. The right-handed batter had scored at a strike rate of 146.63, smashing six sixes to help India put on a dominant total of 357-8 on the board.

In reply, Sri Lanka were bowled out for a paltry 55, giving India a 302-run win as they continued their winning streak during the campaign.

Iyer revealed that the knock was crucial as there was pressure on him to keep a hold of his spot in the playing XI.

"The 82 against Sri Lanka. Because there was a lot of talk about dropping me from the squad, and that I’m not providing much for the team. Even though I had scored a 50 against Pakistan, there was some talk which put me in a helter-skelter situation. That kind of (talk) boosted my instincts from within," Iyer said during Idea Exchange (via The Indian Express).

Iyer had endured a lean first half of the World Cup, beginning with a three-ball duck against Australia. He made a strong comeback to record two fifties, and two hundreds in the last four matches of the league phase. The batter finished with 530 runs at an average of 66.25.

Iyer further added that criticism from outside can be 'irritating' at times.

"It’s irritating, especially when it comes from people, who haven’t faced 150 km per hour delivery, advising you to play in a particular way. But I would say it is their opinion. They have all the right to talk, but they can talk between themselves not to the player directly," Iyer added.

The batter has been constantly riddled with questions regarding his woes against the short ball. He had lashed out at a journalist for the same during a press conference, right after the earlier-mentioned knock against Sri Lanka in the 2023 ODI World Cup.

"The toughest phase was my back injury" - Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer faced a chronic issue with his back, causing him to sustain injuries on a regular basis. With this inconsistency affecting his form, and threatening his place in the Indian side in the long-run, he opted to have surgery for the same.

He went under the knife in April 2023 after an injury during the Border-Gavaskar series, causing him to miss the entire Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign, and the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

"The toughest phase was my back injury. When I underwent surgery, I thought this was completely going to change my body. And it was kind of difficult to come back into the same zone and agility that I had before the surgery. After a year, now I feel very comfortable and I feel strong that I can do basically what I intended to before the surgery," Iyer said (as per the aforementioned source).

Iyer eventually made his comeback in the 2023 Asia Cup, and had a prolific run after that.