Change in captaincy is part of the decision making of the franchise - Iyer

Shreyas Iyer, who led Delhi Capitals to the IPL 2020 final, returned as a normal player, having missed the first half of the IPL due to an injury. With the franchise deciding to continue with Rishabh Pant as skipper for the entirety of the tournament, there were so much talks around how it would impact Iyer's mindset as a cricketer but none of that was prevalent during his calm 47-run knock. He formed an important partnership with the skipper to guide Delhi home on a tricky surface.

"Look when I got the captaincy, I was in a really different frame of mind. My decision making and temperament were very good and that helped me in the last two years. Change in captaincy is part of the decision making of the franchise and whatever decision they took, I respect that. Rishabh has been leading well since the start of the season, so they must have thought they'd continue him till the end of the season," Iyer said.

"For me, there's no drastic change that I am more focused during batting now as compared to when I was captain. I like soaking the pressure, when there's pressure the challenges increase and I try to get myself in the mindset that I perform well when the going's tough. When I went in today, there was some pressure to win the game and the wicket was also playing uneven. Mindset was that I have to finish the game as one of the main members of the team. Whenever I play, my aim is to play until the last ball and take my team to victory," the Mumbai-born batter added.

Iyer sustained an injury during the T20 series against England back in March this year and that forced him to miss the first half of the IPL. Now, he is not a part of the 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup either with Suryakumar Yadav getting the nod ahead of him. The entire injury saga has put his career on a back gear but Iyer is not much fussed about that. He also credited his close-knit family and friends for keeping him sane during the entire rehab process.

"I have a very close-knit family and friends and they never made me feel that I was going through an injury," he said. "Firstly, you know when I got injured, it was really difficult for me to adapt to the fact that I was injured because I keep doing so many activities here and there. And I never think about that situation (injuries) and that happened. So it was really tough for me to adapt. But as I mentioned earlier, close-knit families and friends really kept me busy. They kept me in a positive frame of mind and never made me feel that you know I'm going through an injury. But when the rehab started and I started gaining strength, that feeling was really amazing. And that put me in a really good frame of mind that I will come back positive and strong."