Former India opener Wasim Jaffer pointed out middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer's weakness in facing pacers as he scored a 27-ball 36 for the losing cause against South Africa in the first T20I couple of days ago. Jaffer felt the 27-year-old batter is unable to find enough boundary shots against fast bowlers in comparison to spinners as Iyer likes to play through the offside.
During his last innings, Iyer managed just 13 runs off 17 deliveries against pacers while smashing spinners for three sixes and a four.
"You kind of know when Shreyas gets stuck, he moves around in the wicket a lot. He goes outside and wants to access the off-side. Otherwise, you won’t see him hitting a lot of boundaries or sixes off the fast bowlers. He did take down Shamsi and then later on Ishan Kishan took on the Keshav Maharaj threat," Jaffer told ESPNCricinfo.
The 44-year-old Ranji legend added that Iyer, who batted at No. 3 in place of rested Virat Kohli, needs to develop some of his shots in order to be effective against fast bowlers as it is important for a top-four batter to be effective against pace.
"Look at the future, he needs to develop some shots with which he can dominate the fast bowlers also. He is batting in the top 4, he is not somebody who comes at the backend. So he has to improve his game, especially the boundary hitting against fast bowlers. That innings (against South Africa) could have been a little bit better. 10-15 more would have come if he had hit a couple more boundaries in this innings," Jaffer said.
Statistics suggest that Iyer's innings against South Africa wasn't a one-off as his strike rate against pacers during the recently-concluded IPL stood at 120 in comparison to 150 against spin. The batter, however, still had a decent IPL with the bat as the KKR skipper scored 400-plus runs in 14 games.
For India, he is currently chasing the record of becoming the third-fastest Indian to 1000 runs in T20 cricket.
Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn, however, backed Iyer to overcome the issue ahead of the World Cup as he believes him to be a great player.
"Knowing that the World Cup is going to be in Australia this year, he is going to have to combat that, facing lot more seamers than spinners. That said, he has a couple more months to work on that. He is a great player, he will work with Rahul Dravid and figure out how to work out that aspect of his game," Steyn said.
Iyer is expected to play in the second ODI on Sunday, which is slated in Cuttack on 12 June.
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