Shastri pinpoints major change that has helped Shreyas Iyer prosper

Former India coach Ravi Shastri believes the excellent recent form of Shreyas Iyer can be attributed to a key adjustment made to his batting technique.

Iyer has been superb against the white-ball in recent times, with the 30-year-old dominating the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 earlier this year when he finished the tournament as the second leading run-scorer amassing 243 runs at an average of 48.60.

It helped Iyer regain a place in India's list of 34 players with contracts for the 2024/25 international season and Shastri pinpointed a key change to the right-hander's technique when discussing his recent rise with host Sanjana Ganesan on the most recent episode of The ICC Review.

“He was very side on, was back and back, very much leg-side. The fact that he's prepared to go back and across now and with a very upright stance and the pick up,” Shastri observed.

“While he's moving back, the bat's being picked up as well when he's going back and across.

“That allows him to play both sides of the wicket. If they bang it in short, he can pull and hook. And if there's any room outside the off stump, he can cut as well.”

Watch : Every Shreyas Iyer boundary from the Champions Trophy 2025

In Shastri’s opinion, this change has enabled Iyer to play more freely on both sides of the wicket and, crucially, to counter the short ball — an area that had long been considered a weakness in his game.

“So that opens up the game for him rather than being too leg-side where the rib cage was being targeted and then there was no escape," Shastri added.

“Now he's got space to go both ways and he's such a good timer of the ball. He's got good hands and when he gets into position early then he can be devastating as he's showing now when he's batting.”

India’s next major challenge is the red-ball tour of England, where they are set to face the hosts in a five-match Test series that will be their first hitout for the new ICC World Test Championship cycle.

Iyer hasn’t featured at Test level since the start of last year, but Shastri believes the 30-year-old has an outside chance of earning a recall.

“Shreyas Iyer in particular, the way he's played for India over the last 18 months and he's become an absolute certainty in the white-ball format of the game, especially the one-day format," Shastri said.

“He can (earn a recall for Test cricket) but it's again going to be a competition.

"White-ball, certain (selection). Test cricket, (we) have got to see who the other players are around."