Mohammad Kaif criticises team management for dropping Shreyas Iyer after ODI debacle

Mohammad Kaif has come forward and criticised the team management especially skipper Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri for constant changes in the Indian team. He highlighted Shreyas Iyer's case in the ongoing limited-overs series in Australia.

 'I am not surprised': Mohammad Kaif

"Shreyas Iyer had become your main player at one point. That he is your No.4 batsman, who finishes the game. Whether you talk about the IPL or go back to the New Zealand series, there also he finished games at No.4. He scored 50 not out or 33 not out, he was playing well at the No.4 position. He had two or three bad innings in the ODI, so they didn’t play him in the first T20I. This is the culture of the Indian team and we have all understood that. I am not surprised that he is dropped," said Kaif while speaking on Sony Sports.

Furthermore, the former Indian middle-order batsman also added that this is the sort of thinking of Kohli and Shastri which has also been understood by the players as they are aware that they will just get a couple of innings to prove themselves.

Shreyas Iyer's performance in ongoing Australian series

Iyer has been considered as India's prolific number four batsman in white-ball cricket after World Cup 2019. He had an outstanding run with the bat in the limited-overs series against New Zealand away from home earlier this year where he had amassed 153 runs (T20Is) and 217 runs (ODI series). However, he did not have a good outing in the recently-concluded ODI series with scores of 2, 38 & 19 respectively and he was dropped for the 1st T20I. 

Iyer was replaced by senior middle-order batsman Manish Pandey. Nonetheless, the move backfired as the Karnataka batsman could only amass a couple of runs off eight deliveries. Shreyas was once again selected in the Playing XI and scored an unbeaten 12 off 5 balls including a boundary and a maximum. He remained unbeaten as Hardik Pandya hit two big sixes in the final over as India successfully chased down the target by six wickets and a couple of balls to spare. 

By the virtue of this win, the Men In Blue have sealed the T20I series by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead and have registered a second series win in the shortest format after the 2015/16 season where they had registered a clean sweep against the Aussies under Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy.

READ: Team India Celebrates Shreyas Iyer, Dhawan And Bumrah's Birthday After T20I Series Win