Shreyas Iyer faltered big time in the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Tamil Nadu at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy at BKC in Mumbai on Sunday, March 3. Iyer, who was left out of the BCCI's annual central contract list earlier this week, didn't play any game due to a suspected injury concern with his troubling back after he was dropped from India's Test squad during the ongoing series against England.
On a tough green pitch at the venue in Mumbai, Iyer, along with several other batters from both sides fell prey to the moving ball. Pacer Sandeep Warrier got the ball to move from its length and take Iyer's inside edge onto the stumps as Mumbai was in the middle of a collapse after Tamil Nadu got a modest total of 146 runs on the board. Iyer score just 3 off seven balls before becoming the 5th victim of the Tamil Nau bowlers.
After being cleared from the NCA, Iyer didn't make himself available for the Ranji Games. As per reports, the Mumbai Cricket Association in a statement said that Iyer was recovering from back spasms before making himself available for his domestic team for the Ranji Trophy semi-finals.
After Tamil Nadu posted 147, even though Mumbai lost a few wickets, Musheer Khan slammed a gritty half-century to keep the home team in the game. The regular wickets didn't help Mumbai's case as Tamil Nadu skipper R Sai Kishore took 5/31 and also completed his landmark of 50 wickets in the ongoing Ranji season.
Mumbai are already 7 down for 125 and will look to reduce the deficit with wicketkeeper Hardik Tamore and Shardul Thakur in the middle. The pitch isn't easy and it will be a tough job for Mumbai batting fourth on this track. As far as Shreyas Iyer is concerned, the Indian batter will hope for a better outing in the next innings with the bat as he would want to be in some run-scoring form before the IPL.
