If Shreyas Iyer bats at four it, will allow Pant to play aggressively: Zaheer Khan
Pant isn't playing his natural game at four according to Zaheer.
India’s number four conundrum doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. Virat Kohli, at the toss of the second ODI, backed Rishabh Pant to play at that position. But the left-hander threw his wicket away and on the flip side of it, Shreyas Iyer, making a comeback, scored a sparkling 71 at number five. Many believe that the Mumbai lad should play at four which will also allow Rishabh Pant to bat freely.
The former India cricketer Zaheer Khan also thinks the same way and feels that Iyer will anyways get promoted to number four if he plays consistently. Pant scored only 20 runs and got out playing an atrocious shot when he had the chance to score big. The southpaw stitched only 25 runs for the third wicket before getting out to leave India in trouble at 101/3 in the 23rd over.
But Iyer’s arrival brought a sense of calm to the proceedings. He rotated the strike well and hit timely boundaries which took the pressure off Virat Kohli as well who was getting tired at the other end in humid conditions.
It will work better for Pant
Zaheer Khan pointed out the trend of the team over the last two years with the management promoting different players at four. Even during the World Cup, Hardik Pandya batted at the much-debated position on a couple of occasions to up the scoring rate.
“Virat at the toss had already said that there is some flexibility regarding the number four spot. And it has been a trend of the past couple of years, if someone has played a good innings at a different number, he has been promoted. So, Shreyas Iyer, I think will naturally get that promotion to the number four position which will work better for Rishabh Pant in due course,” Zaheer said while speaking to Cricbuzz.
With a lot of cricket to be played in the near future, Shreyas Iyer would just want to be consistent to seal his place in the team and in due course, it is very much possible that he bats at four and solve the long-standing problem once and for all.
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