India's No.4 scored just 11 runs in the first ODI in Perth.
Shreyas Iyer and short-pitched deliveries are once again turning out to be a favourite toy for fast bowlers. India’s ODI No.4 was sent back after he fell to a brutal delivery by Josh Hazlewood in the AUS vs IND 1st ODI. While scoring 11 runs off 24 deliveries with a solitary boundary, Shreyas seldom looked confident at the crease.
Over the last few years, almost every fast bowler from around the world has used the short ball against the Indian right-handed batter. Up until the end of 2024, the Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper was brutally targeted by short-pitched deliveries from pacers. There was an issue with his transfer of weight on the back foot, which was closely connected to his technique.
But the 30-year-old was seen in tremendous form after his sudden call-up to the ODI setup in the home series against England this year. He scored two half-centuries in the three matches and showcased some clean stroke play.
His run of form continued in the Champions Trophy, which helped Shreyas become a certainty in India’s ODI XI. What followed was a magnificent IPL season for the PBKS captain. In 17 matches, he scored 604 runs with an average exceeding 50. Something had changed, and it was showing in the way Shreyas was playing. There was some work being done at the back end of the sport.
Just before the England ODI series in February 2025, Shreyas had a three-day session with childhood coach Parvin Amre. The idea was to work on improving the right-hander’s technique. Amre later revealed that he empowered Shreyas to respond to all types of delivery with extreme ease.
This is an example of Shreyas Iyer’s stance and an attempted pull shot from one of the matches in IPL 2024. As we can see, his stance (the image on the left) is quite composed with a normal backlift pointing towards the slip cordon.
What used to happen is, Shreyas’s head would start falling over because of his back leg collapsing during the trigger movement. In this process, the head followed automatically, resulting in him losing his balance. With the head falling away, Shreyas would be vulnerable to multiple threats, the most important of which was the shorter delivery.
If we look at the image on the right, Shreyas’s back foot is up in the air. In technical terms, what it does is that it takes all the power out of the shot. The amalgamation of all these factors was one of the most prominent reasons why Shreyas was failing against the short delivery. However, in the three-day workshop with his coach, he developed a strong footing in order to increase his chances.
This image is after the Mumbai batter made changes to his stance and technique. It is clearly visible that the right-handed batter opened his stance up to be ready for the incoming delivery. Furthermore, his backlift was no longer pointing towards the slip cordon. Instead, it was a lot more towards point, which allowed him to stay ready for the bouncer.
For a batter, the lesser the reaction time, the better it is. With the conventional backlift, it would take him time till his bat reached the connection point. As a result, Shreyas would end up mis-timing the ball and get dismissed caught. This way, his trigger movement was a lot more balanced, and his weight was in the middle. Considering his backlift, Shreyas could now send short deliveries 10 rows behind the square-leg boundary.
This is what we can observe in the second part of the image. Most importantly, his back leg is firmly grounded, which indicates that he is totally in balance with the shot. Moreover, unlike the previous collage (IPL 2024), he is not trying to keep the ball down. Rather, he is engaging his core strength to throw deliveries out of the boundary.
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Shreyas Iyer had the weapon in his arsenal to beat the short delivery. Yet, Josh Hazlewood managed to get the better of him once again with the same kind of delivery. Shreyas hit a brilliant boundary through the point region after the rain-interrupted play resumed. In the same over, he was caught behind a bodyline short delivery.
This is Shreyas Iyer’s trigger movement at the time of release. We can clearly see that his front foot has come right across, which has locked him up. From this position, it will be extremely difficult for any batter to transfer his weight behind to go for the pull shot, or even to counter the short delivery. The right-hander was rattled by the pace of Hazlewood, which proved to be his undoing in the first ODI.
Another factor could be the bounce on the wickets in Australia, England, South Africa, and New Zealand. Wickets in the SENA countries are slightly different from what is on offer in the subcontinent. Since the change in technique, Shreyas has mostly played all of his cricket in the subcontinent. This is why the bouncy conditions in Perth got the better of the Indian No.4.
The Punjab Kings skipper has put in the hard yards to work on his technique, which showed significant results as well. However, while playing in SENA countries, he will have to make sure that he is much quicker on the ball and gets into the right positions. With the way he got dismissed in the 1st ODI, a lot of short bowling is surely in his path in the near future.
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