Asia Cup 2023: Shreyas Iyer looks at ease in nets ahead of Bangladesh clash

Star India batter Shreyas Iyer gave a mighty scare to the Indian cricket fans as he picked up a fresh injury just ahead of the Super 4 clash vs Pakistan in Asia Cup 2023. The 28-year-old suffered a back spasm just a few minutes before the toss and had to be replaced by KL Rahul, who shone on his comeback with a magnificent hundred. Iyer also didn’t travel with the team the next day for the match against Sri Lanka as he was advised to rest by the BCCI medical team.

However, just ahead of India’s next Super 4 game vs Bangladesh on Friday, September 15, Iyer took part in an optional practice session on Thursday in Colombo. During the entire session, the Mumbai-born batter showed no signs of discomfort while batting for around 105 minutes and played both off the front foot and back foot with ease.

According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, apart from Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma were the other players attending the practice session. Varma was even seen bowling off spin to Ravindra Jadeja under the supervision of bowling coach Paras Mhambrey. Notably, Varma was also a part of the Indian U-19 team in 2020 in South Africa which was coached by Mhambrey.

"We have been working with Tilak since the Under-19 days. I felt that when we had gone to South Africa for Under-19 (World Cup), he had a bowling skill that we could definitely use, and so we have been working on that consistently,” Mhambrey was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

India to test bench strength vs Bangladesh?

Mhambrey further revealed that the team combination for the Bangladesh game hasn’t been decided yet. However, he didn’t deny trying out their bench strength as India have already qualified for the final and will be eager to give chances to other players with the ODI World Cup 2023 approaching.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are locking horns in the penultimate game of the Super 4 with the winner of the game set to qualify for the final. However, if the game gets washed out, Sri Lanka will qualify for the final due to their superior net run rate.