On Sunday morning, the reason behind Iyer not batting at his preferred No. 5 position was revealed. The BCCI pushed out an update informing that Iyer complained of pain in his back and that he is under the supervision of the board’s medica team.
As India’s batters continue to enjoy a field day against Australia in the 4th Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Ahmedabad, there were a couple of surprising moves on offer. Ravindra Jadeja was promoted ahead of Shreyas Iyer in the batting line-up on Day 3. But while initially it seemed as if the move stemmed from the temptation of getting left-hand, right-hand combination going, the plot thickened when there was still no sign of Iyer as KS Bharat walked in at the fall of Jadeja’s wicket.
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On Sunday morning, the reason behind Iyer not batting at his preferred No. 5 position was revealed. The BCCI pushed out an update informing that Iyer complained of pain in his back and that he is under the supervision of the board’s medica team. “Shreyas Iyer complained of pain in his lower back following the third day’s play. He has gone for scans and the BCCI Medical Team is monitoring him,” a release stated.
The seriousness of Iyer’s injury remains to be seen though. If Iyer is indeed incapable of batting, the game may just open, with only Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel as the two recognised batters to come after this. Both have batted tremendously in the series but an interesting scenario may just unfold with the pitch finally showing signs of doing something. India, still training are being moved forward by Virat Kohli and Bharat, and one more wicket at this juncture may just make this game that bit more interesting.
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This is the second time in two months that Iyer has been plagued by a troubled back. After playing the two-Test series against Bangladesh in December, Iyer had a swelling in his lower back, which required him to take an injection and subsequently ruled him out of the home series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka. After undergoing rehab at the NCA in Bengaluru, Iyer was declared fit and was drafted back in the squad for the second Test of the India vs Australia Test series in Delhi.
Upon regaining fitness, Iyer returned to India’s Playing XI in Delhi, scoring 4 and 12 and retained his place in Indore where he got a duck and 26 as India were handed their first defeat of the series. Iyer is the second India cricketers being troubled by back injury. The first one is obviously Jasprit Bumrah, who recently underwent a back surgery in New Zealand earlier this week and the hope is to have him back in time and in perfect shape for the World Cup. Bumrah is expected to be out for six months.
