India vs Australia: Shreyas Iyer joins Indian squad ahead of Delhi Test, confirms BCCI
Shreyas Iyer is coming from a back injury
India batsman Shreyas Iyer will join the Indian squad ahead of the second Test against Australia in Delhi, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Tuesday.
Iyer, who sustained a lower back injury after the two-match Test series in Bangladesh, missed India's home One-Day International (ODi) series against New Zealand and the opening game of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 against Australia. However, now the Mumbai batsman has been cleared by the BCCI Medical Team.
"Shreyas Iyer has successfully completed his rehab at the National Cricket Academy following his back injury and has been cleared by the BCCI Medical Team. Shreyas will join the squad in New Delhi ahead of the second Test of the Mastercard Australia tour of India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy," read an official release from the BCCI.
Rohit Sharma and Co thrashed Australia by an innings and 132 runs in the first Test, which ended within three days in Nagpur. The second Test is scheduled to begin on Feb. 17 at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium.
So far, Iyer has played seven Tests, scoring 624 runs at an average of 56.72 and strike rate of 65.13. He is mainly strong against spin, which makes him a vital batsman for India on turning tracks. The 28-year-old cricketer is also one among four Indian batters to average above 50 in Asia since the start of 2021.
If Team India does decide to slot Iyer back into their XI immediately, that could come at the expense of other contenders such as Shubman Gill or Suryakumar Yadav, who made his Test debut recently in Nagpur and bagged the No. 5 slot in Iyer's absence.
Meanwhile, India's No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara is gearing up to make his 100th appearance in Tests for India ahead of the Delhi game. Pujara will become only the 13th cricketer from India to play 100 Tests. He will only be the second cricketer in the current team to play 100 Tests after Virat Kohli, who played his 100th against Sri Lanka in Mohali in March 2022.
In 99 Tests, Pujara has amassed 7,021 runs at an average of 44.15, including 34 half-centuries and 19 hundreds. Out of this, Pujara's 1,900 runs have come against Australia and he averages over 50 against India's arch-rivals, including five centuries and 10 fifties.
India's squad for second Test: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav