IPL 2021: Shreyas Iyer finally opens up on Delhi Capitals continuing with Rishabh Pant as captain

Delhi Capitals batter Shreyas Iyer returned to competitive cricket after a gap of six months following his shoulder injury, surgery, rehabilitation and recovery. Iyer suffered the injury in March during the ODI series against England and thus was ruled out of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Delhi Capitals had named wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant as the stand-in captain for the season but who knew that the 14th edition oof the cash-rich eague will be suspended midway and when it will return four and a half months later, Shreyas Iyer will be fit and they will have a tough decision to make.

The Capitals in the end retained Pant as the captain for the season since Shreyas was returning with no cricket behind him and also looking at the future.

Iyer played a handy knock of 47* runs off just 41 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad in DC’s first game of the second half and helped his side get through to an 8-wicket victory.

After the game in the press conference, Iyer was asked about his midnset as batsman when he was a captain and now that he isn’t, he said, “When I was given the captaincy, I was in a different frame of mind and my decision-making and temperament level was very good and I benefited from it in the last two years.

Talking about Pant retaining the captaincy for the entire IPL 2021 edition, “This is part of the decision-making from the franchise or whatever decision they took, I respect the fact and Rishabh is leading the side well from the start of the season and they thought that he should be continued till the season end and I completely respect the decision,” he added.

Iyer said that there has been no drastic change as such in his batting, just that his focus has increased towards batting as he liked to soak in pressure when he was the leader and he always enjoys performing in pressure and challenging situations.