Giving a peek into his mindset when faced with high-pressure situations, India batter Shreyas Iyer has said that he likes to be aggressive to “steady the ship”, something that he demonstrated quite well in the Champions Trophy win over arch-foes Pakistan after making a sedate start.
Iyer’s 56 off 67 was the perfect supporting act to Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 100 as India chased a 242-run target with more than seven overs to spare on Sunday night. The win has pushed Pakistan to the brink of elimination and taken India within touching distance of a semifinal berth.
“I love to take on the bowlers when we are under pressure. And that is my mindset. If we take charge, if we gain the momentum towards us, then it is easy to steady the ship,” Iyer said in the post-match press conference.
“And from there on, the rest of the batsmen, when they come in, it becomes easy for them.”
He expected India to take way less than the 42.3 overs that the side consumed for the six-wicket victory.
“I think we could have won a bit earlier, could have been a convincing win based on how the wicket was playing. It was initially coming on pretty well with the new ball and after that it was difficult to score runs when the ball got a bit old,” he said.
“But if we would have played more aggressively we would have won a bit earlier I felt,” he added.
