Shreyas Iyer Reflects on Ranji Century: Prioritizing My Body Over Others' Opinions

The year 2024 has been a whirlwind for Shreyas Iyer, full of surprises and unexpected gifts. Just 10 months ago, he could never have imagined the incredible experiences and opportunities that would come his way.

He started the year playing Test cricket but was soon dropped from the side during the home England series. When he skipped Ranji Trophy briefly, he lost his BCCI central contract worth INR 3 crore.

But he returned to win the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai with a knock of 95 in the final before ending KKR's 12-year drought by leading them to the title as captain.

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With back issues bothering him at the start of the year, Iyer's big challenge in this domestic season was to be patient, play long innings and stay fit by playing one red-ball game after another. And in five first-class matches that started with the Duleep Trophy in early September, Iyer began a stretch of four scores of 50 or more in 11 innings that culminated with a Ranji Trophy century against Maharashtra on Saturday - 142 off 190 balls studded with 12 fours and four sixes, including a couple off short balls. It was Iyer's first century in first-class cricket in nearly three years, since his hundred on Test debut against New Zealand in Kanpur. Iyer says he is "absolutely keen for a comeback" with runs behind him and his back 100% fine.

Calling the century "special," Iyer said: "Coming back after a very long time, obviously I was feeling a bit down with my injuries, but now getting a century after a very long time, it's a great feeling.

"I am absolutely keen for a [Test] comeback but yeah, as we say, control the controllables and my job is to keep performing and keep participating as much as possible and also see with that my body is in best shape. So I'll take the best decision possible according to that."

Iyer revealed that after his back surgery last year, he went through a phase where he had doubts that the injury might recur. He came back from an injury layoff in the Asia Cup last year that was followed by the ODI World Cup at home before he played the two Tests in South Africa at the turn of the year and then two more against England at home. Iyer had said at the end of IPL 2024 that he was "definitely struggling" with his back in the longer format but "no on was agreeing" when he raised the concern. Does he still feel such doubts about his back creep in sometimes?

"Not anymore," he said. "But there was this phase where I was feeling that it might occur again. But yeah, I trained a lot to see to it that I have optimum fitness and obviously it comes here and there, but now my capacity has improved a lot."

Shreyas Iyer: 'I am absolutely keen for a [Test] comeback but yeah, as we say, control the controllables'

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PTI

And how did he get his body there?

"Training. Yeah, obviously I improved my long-distance running and that's what I wanted to. You know, increase my patience as well in terms of the longer format and according to that I was training. [I did] intensive training like I was stressing up my body, like pushing my body 400-800 meters of running and I was trying to push my limits and seeing to it that I was at the best fitness possible.

[Earlier], even when I would sit for long, stand for long, the back would get stiff automatically and yeah, basically that's what I wanted to improve on."

Did the fitness issues and how he thought "nobody was agreeing," create an inaccurate perception about him for Test cricket?

"See, I had addressed my feeling during the longer format and things didn't go my way," he said, implying that he was willing to put it behind him. "But I've also addressed it in the previous interviews I've given and I'm in a good space right now. I'm doing what I'm meant to do, that is training and playing matches consistently and I feel that all the matches I've played right now in the past have helped me gain that fitness level as well, along with my training."

Playing his sixth first-class match in a row in the last six weeks, Iyer said, "The body has taken a lot of load at the same time. So we have to manage here and there and see to it that I strategise in terms of how I play. Now I have to be smart in terms of what decisions I take, I need to see to it that my body is in the best shape possible. As I mentioned previously as well, I have to decide according to that, no matter whatever people think outside. I have to listen to my body because I know the amount of threshold carried over the last few years and based on that, I'll be taking the right decision, and I hope that my team will also back [that]."

Iyer further said that coming back from injury for the longer format, he also had to change the way he approached the red-ball format. Iyer faced 190 deliveries during his knock spread across Friday and Saturday, and the last time he consumed as many deliveries in first-class cricket was back in December 2022 in Chattogram, scoring a patient 86 off 192 in the first innings of the first Test. Since then, there were only two occasions when Iyer faced over 100 deliveries in a first-class innings in 28 attempts.

"Nowadays when the teams come up, they straightaway put a defensive field right from ball one," he said. "So I was just trying to take some time, in between trying to play more balls than scoring shots, so that was my plan. Play session by session and try to see how much my body can take. When I said that I played a few matches in the past, that was the reason where I got to know that I can smash every ball, but at the same time I have to bat longer if I want my body to be ready for any situation provided by the opposition. And yeah, we faced many challenges in the past.

"Like even in the previous match, Baroda gave us a rank-turner and they performed brilliantly and we were put under the pump. So you know, different occasions, different demands and we have to see to it that we are in the best mindset possible."

After the game against Maharashtra, Iyer will play three more league games Mumbai are slotted to play this year before the Ranji Trophy season will be paused for the 50-over and 20-over white-ball tournaments. It might be a little far-fetched to say that Iyer will be a strong contender for the Australia tour, having not been named in the India A squad for the two red-ball games starting October 31.

Does Iyer feel he has had a mixed bag of chocolates this year?

"You win three championships in a year, and what else can you ask for? All I see is the positive things over here and that is winning the trophy and that's what I want."