Shreyas Iyer: I love accepting challenges

Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer became the 16th batsman in the history of the Ranji Trophy to cross the 1000-run mark in a single season, during the match against Jharkhand.

Shreyas Iyer... happy to keep scoring runs.

Only a handful of batsmen have breached the 1000-run mark in a single Ranji Trophy season. On Friday, Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer became the latest – 16th to be precise – after getting to 1056 runs from just nine matches.

“Really happy,” said the 21-year-old. “My aim was to get past my previous season score (809). As soon I crossed that, I had made 1000 runs the target.”

“People say that the second season is tough for a player who has scored good runs in the first, because the expectation is a lot. I have lived up to their expectations. It’s a really nice feeling.”

For young batsmen, adapting to different kinds of surfaces can be an arduous task. But Shreyas, on more than one occasion, has displayed his versatility.

“It doesn’t come naturally,” he said. “I love accepting challenges. This was a kind of challenge; playing in the second innings with the wicket not behaving well. People look at you when you are taking the team ahead; when you take the team past the par score and achieve something.”

As prolific as he has been, the talk of him donning the India cap never dies down. Even as he admitted that breaking into the current Indian team was difficult, Shreyas did expect a call-up for the Australia tour.

“At the start I was a bit disappointed (not to make it). But not that much. I’m still young. I’ve got many more years to play for India. I’ll just keep scoring.”