Shreyas Iyer opened up on his T20 World Cup snub, and revealed how he dealt with it during IPL 2024.
Despite leading Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL 2024 final, Shreyas Iyer failed to bag a spot in India’s T20 World Cup squad. The KKR skipper has been excellent with his captaincy skills this season and was in fine batting form in Qualifier 1. Chasing 160, KKR cruised to 164/2 in 13.4 overs, courtesy of Iyer’s unbeaten knock of 58* off 24 balls.
Shreyas Iyer plays a shot.
KKR face SRH once again, this time in the final. The Pat Cummins-led side bounced back from their Qualifier 1 defeat, beating Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2 to reach the final.
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Speaking ahead of the final, Iyer pointed out that he wasn’t affected by missing out on the T20 World Cup squad, due to his role as KKR captain. “It has been fantastic, touchwood. Yeah, we won the Qualifier, I was also part of the team and contributed in the Qualifier. It gives me immense pleasure of playing so well in the last few months and so coming and being part of such an amazing squad.”
“So all I did was stay in the present and not think about what is going to happen with me and not worry about the selection process or anything. I just wanted to come and participate, to play to the best of my abilities,” he added.
KKR were in dominant form this season and finished the league phase in pole position with 20 points in 14 matches, packed with nine wins and three defeats.
This season, Iyer is KKR’s third-highest run-scorer with 345 runs in 14 matches, at a strike rate of 146.18. He has also bagged two fifties and will be looking to clinch the title on Sunday.
Iyer also had special praise for Gautam Gambhir, who is serving as team mentor for KKR. “The hype is definitely created by you guys. Where I stand is definitely upon you. But talking about Gautam bhai, he has got immense knowledge about how the game is played, has won two titles previously with KKR, and his strategies have been spot on in terms of what we have to execute against our opponents. He adds a lot of cream to the team and hopefully we continue the same momentum in the final.”
