Contractless But Full Of Swagger - Shreyas Iyer Still Runs The ODI Show For India

Jhukegi Duniya, Jhukaane Waala Chahiye 

The world will bow down to you, you just need to know how.  

Shreyas Iyer was out of the Test team and out of BCCI central contracts, and still, when Rohit Sharma’s men lifted the Champions Trophy, he was there in the triumphant frame. Adorned in the white blazer of champions, with the winners’ gold medal in between his teeth, he proudly stood on the stage after being his team’s highest run-scorer in the tournament. 

Some scripts write themselves. Some need writers. But some need an individual to first carve a pen out of wood and make paper out of pulp. Then, they are written, with words engraved in dark ink that shouts perseverance, skill, passion, and, in Iyer’s case, a lot of swagger.  

The Making 

Before Iyer became the designated number four in the buildup years to the 2023 ODI World Cup, India struggled to find a stable option at that number after the victorious 2011 campaign. Then, after years of waiting, Iyer arrived at the scene with exactly the right kind of batting that India needed at number four — someone who can be relied on against pace and can smack the spinners in the middle overs between 11-40 with just four fielders outside of the inner circle. 

India had one of the best accumulators ODI cricket has ever seen in Virat Kohli at number three, but his prowess against spin faded as his boundary options became limited against that bowling type. India desperately needed added impetus with the bat in the middle overs as average ODI totals kept soaring due to the new rules. 

In such a scenario, Iyer emerged as India’s reliable number four who can not only manoeuvre pace at will (except on a few occasions where he was pestered with short-length bowling) but also smash the spinners and disrupt their rhythm in the middle overs.

Now, just take a moment here and think about the pressure on this 20-something-year-old batter making his way into the hyperbolic atmosphere of Indian men’s cricket. He not only has to adapt to a role no one could ace in nearly a decade preceding him, but he also had to stand his ground and make a space for himself in a batting lineup of all-time ODI greats like Rohit Sharma and Kohli. 

But Iyer is Iyer. The man walks swagger. He exudes a chutzpah reminiscent of Viv Richards with his collar popped up and jaws busy chewing gum as if he’s taking a stroll on the Marine Drive with his girlfriend rather than batting in an ODI World Cup Semifinal across the road at the Wankhede. 

And probably that’s what India needed, too - a man whose self-confidence is strong enough to make the failures of those who preceded him in that position completely irrelevant. 

Iyer scored 530 runs at an average of 66.25 and a strike rate of 113.3 in the 2023 ODI World Cup. He was the third-highest run scorer for India in the tournament after Kohli and Sharma, who batted above him in the order. 

The Breaking

However, just like it happened with him after the 2024 Indian Premier League, his contributions and achievements were forgotten. 

As the 2024 T20 World Cup arrived, ODI cricket took a back seat, and so did Iyer. A few innocuous Test matches with the bat saw him expunged from the Test side, and with the new-age hitters dominating T20I cricket for India, there was no way a primarily anchor batter like him could have made a spot in the T20I side. In the middle of it all, a controversy around not playing first-class cricket saw him excluded from the BCCI central contracts, too. 

In less than a year after a stellar ODI World Cup, where he almost did everything that was needed from him and much more, Iyer was floored with disgrace. Indisciplined — that’s what they called him. Arrogant became his middle name as if dotting your body with black ink rids it of humility. 

All style, no substance!!!!

The Rise

If you watch mainstream Indian movies in any language, you know this is the moment in the middle act when the rousing third act starts to emerge out of the rubble of ruin that happened during it. This is when the hero says, ‘Enough is enough’ and picks up his arms to show the world his muscles and the strength of his character. 

In Iyer’s career story so far, the Champions Trophy became that moment for him. A lucky happenstance saw him play in the buildup series against England in India right before the tournament. Iyer, who wasn’t even supposed to play initially, scored 59 off 36, 44 off 47 and 78 off 64 in the three ODIs of the series. 

Contract or no contract, Gautam Gambhir or any other force on earth could not have dropped him from the Indian team. 

The man from Mumbai then went on to score 243 runs (second highest in the tournament, highest for India) at an average of 48.60 on Dubai tracks that were far from ideal for batting. He batted through the tricky middle overs phase, where run-scoring was the toughest as spinners operated there. 

Iyer was so clutch in India’s victorious campaign that his best innings came against India’s most worthy opponent in Dubai — New Zealand. In the league stage game, he arrived at 22/2 and took India to 172 in 36.2 overs. Once he got out, India could only reach 249/9. In the final against the same opponent, he scored 48 off 62 in a nerve-wracking chase, coming in at 106/2 and departing at 183 in the 38.4 overs when the team just needed below run a ball. 

India became the champions of the Champion Trophy. And the contractless Champion, Shreyas Iyer was right in the middle of all the action. 

Such has been Iyer’s rise in world cricket that once you compare his numbers at four with other ODI batters at that same position in the history of the format, you’ll find him going shoulder-to-shoulder with the best who have ever played the game. 

For batters who have played at least 25 innings at number four, no one strikes at a higher strike rate than him (99.7). Not AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni, or even a modern basher like Eoin Morgan. Only 11 such batters average more than 50 at that number, and only he strikes at run a ball. 

If you judge him just on spin numbers, he averages 71.36 and hits the tweakers at a strike rate of 93.6. There are only three ODI batters at number four with a better strike rate than him, and none average even close to him (De Villiers, who strikes at 96, averages 60.1 against spin). 

In terms of average against spin as well, only three batters are better than him, but none strike nearly as quick. Only Morgan and Sean Williams of Zimbabwe score boundaries against spinners at a quicker rate than him in the history of ODI batting at number four!

Shreyas Santosh Iyer is that good. 

He is good enough to win India a Champions Trophy, clutch enough to take India to an ODI World Cup final with a century, and indisciplined enough not to have a central contract. 

A contract-less champion, that’s what he is — a maverick who’s the fulcrum of Indian ODI batting.