Shreyas Iyer

Stylish batter Shreyas Iyer, who played a brilliant innings (92) and put India in a commanding position against Sri Lanka on the opening day of the Pink ball Test, on Saturday said that he is disappointed on missing his century but don't have any regrets as his knock eventually helped the team. After winning the toss and opting to bat first, India were struggling at 126-5 but Iyer played a counter-attacking knock and propelled the hosts to 252 in their first innings.

A total of 204 players were picked by the 10 franchise after shelling out a total of Rs 551.70 cr during the enthralling two day IPL 2022 mega auction with Ishan Kishan (Rs 15.25 cr), Deepak Chahar (Rs 14 cr) and Shreyas Iyer (Rs 12.25 cr) emerging as top-three earners, ahead of the exciting 15th season of cash-rich league.

Just when India looked to finish the second session on a strong note, Iyer was removed by Tim Southee to leave the match interestingly poised with the hosts having a lead of 216. India had a great start to the second session as Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin continued to collect boundaries, taking their partnership for the sixth wicket past fifty. Kyle Jamieson struck on the second ball of his first over, ending Ashwin's gritty stay at the crease with a back of a length delivery rolling to the stumps after ricocheting off his front pad.

At lunch, India are 84/5 in 32 overs, leading by 133 runs with Ashwin (20 not out off 35 balls) and Iyer (18 not out off 51 balls) at the crease. Resuming from the overnight score of 14/1, India were expected to get quick runs but New Zealand bowlers had other plans. The tourists were initially loose but tightened things quickly.

Shreyas Iyer, who received his Test cap from legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar, reached his Test century in 157 balls, adding 25 runs to his overnight score of 75 off 138 balls, including 12 fours and 2 sixes. Iyer was eventually out on 105, chipping a drive to cover off Tim Southee in the 97th over. He walked in when India was 106/3 and saw them being in trouble at 145/4. Since then, Iyer steered the Indian innings en route to becoming the 16th Indian batter (10th at home) to score a century on Test debut.

On a truncated day when six overs were lost to bad light, Iyer and Jadeja joined forces for an unbeaten 113-run stand after Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee had reduced India to 145/4 in 49.2 overs in the second session after Shubman Gill had given the hosts a good start while scoring his third half-century.

In first-class cricket, Shreyas Iyer has scored 4,592 runs in 54 matches at an average of 52.18, including 12 centuries and 23 half-centuries. "Shreyas is going to make his debut. Unfortunately, KL is injured and will not be a part of the Test matches. So, Shreyas will make his debut tomorrow," said Rahane in the pre-match press conference.

Dhawan became the first player to score back to back centuries in the IPL with an unbeaten 106 off 61 balls as he pulled DC to 164/5. The rest of the DC players scored a combined 54 runs off 59 balls with Shreyas' 14 being the joint second highest score behind Dhawan's alongwith Pant.