"I never thought I struggled"- Shreyas Iyer shuts down criticism of his struggle against short balls

The year 2022 hasn't been great for Team India. They suffered badly in two multi-national tournaments and also lost a few important test matches. Adding to that, the team also suffered valiant injuries to their key player, which also impacted the performance.

However, India also had a few positives. Especailly, some batters showed a great form througout the year. And India's swashbuckling middle-order batter, Shreyas Iyer, was one of them. Iyer ended the year 2022 as India's highest run-scorer across all three formats.

He scored runs in T20Is, ODIs, and Test matches as well and was the standout performer for India. He showed good skills against spin bowling and also played swing bowling pretty well. But one thing that troubled India's leading run scorer in 2022 was the short-pitch delivery.

The 28-year-old got out on the short balls in the one-off test against England in July at Edgbaston. He played his first overseas test of his career against England, but it didn't go his way. He got dismissed on short balls in both innings of the game.

It was James Anderson who dismissed him on 15 in the first inning, while Matthew Potts got rid of him in the second inning for a score of 19. Iyer also struggled against the short balls in the TATA IPL 2022. In an interview with The Times of India, he spoke about his struggle against short balls. Iyer said that he didn't want to get into what people said.

He said, "I tried to play the pull and was caught in Edgbaston. In my mind, I never thought I struggled. About the noise that has been created outside, I like to turn a deaf ear to it and keep things simple. I love the line ignorance is bliss. That’s what I do."

Despite a good run, Iyer was not picked for the Indian squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. The 28-year-old said that missing the World Cup was not the end of the world, but rather it was a great learning experience for me and it gave me the opportunity to go back and play for Mumbai in domestic cricket.