IND v NZ: Shreyas Iyer could not sleep through the night to score a century, revealed himself

Kanpur. Shreyas Iyer neither wants to look into the past nor does he want to think about the future. He only wants to live in the present moment as advised by the legendary Sunil Gavaskar while handing him the Indian Test ‘cap’. Iyer, who became the 16th Indian cricketer to score a century in his Test debut, knows there will be some changes in the middle order once skipper Virat Kohli returns to the side in the next match. A few years back, Karun Nair had to go through such a situation when he had to sit out in the next match after scoring a triple century.

Iyer told reporters after scoring 105 runs on Friday, “Sunil Gavaskar sir made an important point while handing over the cap to me. He said you don’t have to think about the past and you don’t have to think about the future either. All you have to do is think about the present and focus on the next ball. That’s what I did.” He said, “I focused on thinking about today and did not think about what would happen in the next match because if I thought about that, I would not be able to live in the present and do well. Whatever happens happens for good and I will accept it.

IND vs NZ: Shreyas Iyer becomes India’s 16th batsman to score a century in Test debut

Getting the Test cap from Gavaskar was a fairy tale for Iyer and scoring a century took him to the next level. He just wants to enjoy this feeling. He said, “Getting the cap from Sunil sir was like a fairy tale. I was thinking that Rahul sir will hand me the cap. Both are legends of the game and I would have been happy to have either of them provide the cap. I am not satisfied with what happened.

Even though Gavaskar told him not to look ahead or focus on the past, Iyer started thinking so much about scoring a century on his Test debut that he could not sleep through the night. Iyer said, “I was really happy with the way everything went well from day one. I couldn’t sleep well last night. Especially when you are thinking about batting all night long. I thought I batted really well yesterday, but still had to focus again today.

In terms of the team, Iyer admitted that India had a tough day. India scored 345 runs in the first innings, in response to which New Zealand scored 129 runs for no loss till the end of the second day’s play. “It was a challenging day for us as he started well. The wicket (pitch) didn’t really help our bowlers. Our focus was on bowling in the right areas, giving the least amount of runs and creating pressure.