'Shreyas Iyer Scored Just 29 Runs but I Found it the Best innings of his Entire Career so Far'

India may have won the Mirpur Test against Bangladesh by 3 wickets to clinch the 2-match series 2-0 but there are several areas that need to be addressed with immediate effect. India lost 7 wickets halfway through the chase of 154 and were on the verge of a humiliating defeat.  But Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin forged a match-winning 71-run unbeaten stand for the 8^th wicket, taking India home before the lunch break on Sunday.

Former India batter Ajay Jadeja lauded Iyer’s temperament in the chase and his fearlessness which guided India to a famous victory in Dhaka. Speaking on Sony Sports Network, Jadeja said Iyer’s 29-run unbeaten knock is the best so far in his career as it pulled the team out of a hopeless situation.

“You did a great job at the end when the game almost slipped away from your hands. But when things were under control and nothing much was done, that has to be seen, addressed, and learned from it. You had an 80-run lead at the start of day three but how it ended was troublesome and so was the first hour on the fourth day. But ultimately, everything fell in India’s favour in the end,” Jadeja told Sony Sports Network.

“Shreyas Iyer scored just 29 runs but I found it the best innings of his entire career so far. Because he showed how to play under such conditions. The results would have gone anyway. Had Ashwin’s catch at short-leg been taken, the results would have been different. But we saw the temperament in Iyer. Skills can easily be shown in 10 days but the temperament gets revealed only at the right time,” he added.

It was the first-ever Test series win for KL Rahul as a captain but personally, he didn’t live up to the expectations. He scored 22, 23, 10 and 2, averaging only 14.25 across four Test innings. Apart from him, talismanic batter Virat Kohli also had a lean run in a series where the top four didn’t click in unison.

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“We don’t obviously go into the game thinking about what we have done previously or thinking what might happen next. We want to give it our best in every opportunity we get, and want to grab it with both hands,” Rahul said at the post-match presser.

“After playing a few Test matches, and after being recognised — when the team is looking at you to perform and get the team through to you, with an added responsibility to do well and that is what is going on in mind,” he added.

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