Shreyas Iyer, the captain of KKR, has received appreciation from assistant coach Abhishek Nayar for displaying incredible mental toughness throughout difficult moments in his professional career.
Shreyas Iyer has been praised by KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar for displaying incredible mental toughness in the face of all the hardships he has faced in his cricket career over the past six months. Notably, during the past two months, the 29-year-old has been at the center of multiple scandals that resulted in his removal from the BCCI Central Contracts list due to allegations that he skipped Ranji Trophy matches.Prior to then, Shreyas had previously been dropped from the Test team during the five-match series against England earlier in the year, following two games in which he scored 31, 6, 0, and 4.
The Mumbai-born cricketer’s situation was made worse when, despite being a consistent stalwart in the limited-overs team, he was excluded from consideration for the next T20 World Cup 2024, which is set to start in the West Indies and the USA on June 2.
But in spite of everything, Iyer has demonstrated incredible mental toughness to lead KKR to the top two positions in the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024), an accomplishment that assistant coach Abhishek Nayar has praised.
“His acceptance of the things that have happened to him makes him one of the greatest mentally strong people I have ever met. I would have heard him moan and gripe about it a lot, but I haven’t seen many others cribbing and talking about it. In the pre-match press conference prior to their next game versus MI, Nayar expressed his positive outlook on life, saying, “You try to accept what is in front of you.”Speaking further ahead, Nayar praised the KKR captain for attempting to fix the problems rather than whining about them.
“While there are some factors beyond his control, he can control his fitness, and he is feeling much better now. He has mentally viewed rejection and not receiving credit for what he deserves in such a good way. He knows he needs to go back and do well, so even when he talks about it, he is not critical,” he continued.
It’s worth noting that Iyer’s back issue, which required surgery last year, prevented him from playing in the 2023 Indian Premier League. The right-handed hitter raised his hand during the ODI World Cup 2023, hitting 530 runs at a strike rate of 113.25, when it meant most, after all the difficult times. He is currently leading the Indian Premier League with 251 runs from six innings with a strike rate of 137.15 and an average of 41.83. In their ninth meeting at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, KKR and MI will square off, with the 29-year-old hoping to carry on his recent success.
