‘The destination is reached by those who have life in their dreams, nothing happens with wings, flight happens with courage.’ This couple perfectly fits Shreyas Iyer’s ups and downs in the last 6 months. Iyer faced a lot during this period. He suffered not only the injury but also the loss of BCCI’s central contract. On top of that, he was also punished for removal from Team India. However, she kept her courage intact and managed to achieve a new flight. Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) shocked everyone by becoming the IPL 2024 champions. KKR finished seventh last season.
KKR’s title drought ends after 10 years
Kolkata ended their title drought after 10 years and won their third trophy. KKR had previously won the title in 2014 and 2012 under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir. KKR badly beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the title match played in Chennai. KKR won the final with 57 balls to spare after bowling out SRH for 113 in 18.3 overs. “It’s difficult to express the emotions,” Iyer said after collecting the trophy. We performed as expected from the players. We had a great season.” He received the trophy from BCCI President Roger Binny and Secretary Jay Shah.
ODIs World Cup Iyer looked after the slope
The 29-year-old Iyer has played 14 Tests, 50 ODIs and 51 T20 Internationals. He ODI World Cup 2023 Then saw the slope. He played his last match for India in February 2024, a Test. He was not selected for the T20 World Cup 2024. Iyer performed brilliantly in the ODI World Cup. He scored 530 runs in 11 matches at an average of 66.25. He was the highest run-scorer in the tournament after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Iyer scored half-centuries in T20Is against Australia and ODIs against South Africa in December. He missed the second and third matches of the South Africa ODI series as he had to prepare for the Test series on tour.
Dropped from the team after failing the test
However, Iyer’s bat did not perform well in the South Africa Test series. He scored only 41 runs in four innings. Iyer was included in the Indian squad for the first two matches of the five-match Test series against England. But he failed to impress in the Tests played in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, after which he was dropped from the team. Iyer suffered a major blow in late February when the BCCI dropped Iyer from the central contract. Many said that Iyer suffered the consequences of not playing the Ranji Trophy after being dropped from Team India.
Controversy over not playing Ranji
Several reports then stated that Iyer had informed that he was not fit for the Ranji quarter-finals. At the same time, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) trainers claimed that Iyer was fully fit to play. Iyer played in the Ranji semi-final but the bat remained quiet. But he silenced the critics with an innings of 95 runs in the Ranji final. Iyer lamented his slump ahead of the IPL 2024 final. He said I am suffering from a back injury and no one is believing him.
The pain came before the IPL final
“In terms of the longer format after the World Cup, I was definitely struggling,” Iyer said. No one agreed with me when I expressed my concern, but the wiser times are competing with themselves. When the IPL was approaching, I just wanted to see that I could give my best and whatever plan or strategy we made earlier, I executed it to the best of my ability. As a batsman, the transition from red-ball cricket to white-ball cricket is difficult, but once you get used to it, you will match other teams.” After KKR became champions, many fans on social media demanded that Iyer be given a central contract again. should get