Shreyas Iyer post match press conference - IND vs SA, 2nd T20, Cuttack

Video Courtesy: BCCI

Shreyas Iyer, Member, Indian Cricket Team, addressed a press conference at the Barabati stadium, Cuttack after the 2nd T20I against South Africa.

“It was really tough to be honest I played 35 balls and I wasn't able to you know identify how the wicket is going to play and I was trying to time the ball as well I actually tried everything out there but still you know it was really difficult especially for the new batsman to come in and get going and on top of that the ball was staying low from one end and from the other end you know there was a variable bounce as well and the ball was seeming so couldn't really talk much about it since you know every wicket can be challenging for us and we can't actually blame that thing for the loss”

“He (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) gave us a really good start exact start we required from bowler and you know you always know that he's known for his swing bowling and the wicket really helped him and he knew the areas to pull at so he executed his plans really well and he's someone who has got a lot of experience playing so much cricket and you know the senior most bolder in the team so yeah he is a great asset to the team”

“We could have you know since we have made this plan that we'll keep going no matter whatever happens you know even if we keep losing wickets it's our game plan to be honest and no matter whatever happens in the future again we'll go in with the same mind-set and we'll back our you know back ourselves and we back our instincts and definitely I feel if something we could have done on this wicket would have been you know try and spend a little more time up the order to gauge how the wicket is you know playing until 11 to 15 over but also at the same time you need to keep scoring and keep the scoreboard ticking so you know if I look back I think 160 would have been a really good score on the board to put them under a little bit of pressure but we got like around 12 short of it”

“It's definitely something we strategized earlier on as well Axar Patel we had seven overs left and Axar Patel is someone who can you know take singles who can keep rotating the strike and we didn't require someone to go come in and straight away start hitting from ball one at that point of time even DK can do that obviously but DK has been you know a really good asset for us after 15 overs very can come in and straight away you know slog the ball even he was finding it a little bit difficult today to start on so obviously wicket played a huge role in today's game and I feel that strategy we can and we will be utilizing in the next games as well obviously and that's what we've been you know thriving on over the years now and if you see the past games we have done this move plenty of times so yeah it's one of those days”

‘World cup is obviously you know it's a main aim but at the same time we have to see to it that how we plan towards you know when we are our main job is to go to the world cup and have that side of sort of mind-set where we are completely free and not thinking about anything and these are like actual games where we can practice uh where we were lacking in the past and you know that's what we keep discussing in the team meeting as well that no matter whatever happens whatever we discuss in the plans in the team meeting we need to go and execute there even if we fail we learn from that and obviously you know we grow as a player and we grow as a team so that's more important”