NAGPUR: Shreyas Iyer came out all guns blazing smashing a 36-ball 59 after the openers fell early. His counterattacking innings helped India put pressure back on England and secure a four-wicket win. However, Iyer later revealed that he got the chance because of Virat Kohli's sore knee. "I wasn't supposed to play the first game as we all know. Virat unfortunately got injured and I got the opportunity. But I kept myself prepared. I knew that at any point of time I could get a chance to play. And the same thing happened with me last year as well during the Asia Cup. I got injured and someone else came and he scored a century," he told the broadcasters after the win.
In fact, Iyer was having a movie night on Wednesday when he got a call from captain Rohit Sharma. "I was watching a movie last night. I thought that I could extend my night. Then I got a call from Skipper saying that you may play because Virat has got a sore knee. And then hurried back to my room, went off to sleep straight away," he added.
While Iyer came out and made the most of the chance, it also throws light on the approach head coach Gautam Gambhir has taken since taking over. The former left-hand opener seems to prefer a left-right combination in the middle and it has been a pattern across formats over the past few months. Iyer's explanations indicate that had Kohli been fit, Shubman Gill would have still batted at three with Yashasvi Jaiswal opening alongside Rohit. And Kohli would have moved from his original position to Number four.
With Iyer and Gill both making runs in a dominating fashion, it will be interesting to see who misses out when Kohli comes back in Cuttack.
Gill anchored the chase with a measured 87-run knock as India won the opening ODI to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series in Nagpur on Thursday. Chasing a modest 249, India overhauled the target in 38.4 overs.
India lost openers Rohit Sharma (2) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (15) early but Iyer's counterattacking half-century, Gill's 87 and Axar Patel's 52 took them over the line. For England, Saqib Mahmood and Adil Rashid took two wickets each.
Earlier, India bundled England out for 248 with debutant Harshit Rana (3/53) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/26) striking at crucial junctures to peg back the visitors after they made a promising start. Skipper Jos Buttler (52), Jacob Bethell (51) and Phil Salt (43) scored the major chunk of the runs for the visitors.
