Twitter wants Shreyas Iyer to bat at four ahead of Rishabh Pant

Team India performed collectively to register a stunning win over the Windies in the second ODI of the three-match series on Sunday. While Virat Kohli scored his 42nd century, Shreyas Iyer notched up an excellent 71 in his comeback knock to propel India to 279 runs in 50 overs. With the ball, Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with the figures of 4/31 in the rain-hit second innings as the hosts fell short of the target by 59 runs.

Despite the victory, India’s number four conundrum continued as Rishabh Pant once again failed to latch on to the opportunity. He looked good for his 20 but played an atrocious stroke to get out and leave the team in a bit of trouble. At 101/3 in the 23rd over, India were in a spot of bother and needed someone to stitch a partnership with Kohli.

Shreyas Iyer came out to bat at five and got going almost from the word go. He rotated the strike well and took the pressure of Virat Kohli. The duo gelled well and added 125 runs for the fourth wicket partnership to keep the Caribbeans at bay. Even after Kohli got out, Iyer kept playing his shots before getting out on 71 off just 68 balls.

Kohli acknowledged Iyer’s knock

After the match, Virat Kohli also acknowledged Shreyas Iyer‘s knock and admitted that the Mumbai lad took the pressure off him with his batting. “He is a very confident guy and has the right attitude. Really got the tempo going and took the pressure off me. After I got out, he got the extra runs as well,” the 30-year-old said in the post-match presentation.

Twitterati, however, is not happy with the fact that Shreyas Iyer batted at number five. The fans feel that he is a perfect solution to the number four problem and should’ve batted at that position ahead of Pant who got out playing a rash shot. Having said that, at the toss, Kohli backed the wicketkeeper-batsman to bat at four and Pant looks set to get more opportunities.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: