The recent few days have been bittersweet for , who was shockingly left out of the Asia Cup squad but was named captain of the squad for multi-day matches against Australia A, which could potentially pave the way for his comeback to the Test team.
Iyer has shown remarkable improvement in the last few years and is one of the best-performing players in .
He was the leading run scorer for India in the ICC Champions Trophy, and followed it up with a 600+ run IPL season for Punjab Kings, where he led the team to the final. Iyer is almost a certainty in the ODI team, and he is expected to claw back to the T20 and Test teams given the form he has shown.
Iyer went through a tricky phase in his career when he was dropped from the BCCI central contract for the 2024-2025 season after he didn’t prove his fitness by playing for Mumbai despite the BCCI’s mandate for all cricketers to play domestic cricket. This was the time when Iyer was recovering from the back injury he picked up after the ODI World Cup 2023. The injury was nearly career-threatening and left Iyer scared. Iyer recalled the chilling phase and revealed he was paralysed in one leg, had a snapped nerve, and battled unbearable pain.
“No one can understand the pain I went through. I was totally paralysed in one leg. With spine surgery, you can place a rod in the back and still manage. But a snapped nerve, which is what I had, is really, really dangerous. The pain was horrendous, running all the way down to my tiny toe. It was so scary,” Iyer said in a conversation with GQ India.
‘I Can Only Control The Controllable’ – Iyer
After recovering from injury, Iyer clawed back in BCCI’s scheme of things. While the board wasted no time in selecting him in the ODI team, they didn’t show a lot of interest in Iyer for other formats. The Asia Cup snub did hurt Iyer, but he can only control the controllables. Iyer said he will continue to work hard and grab every opportunity that comes his way.
“I can only control the controllable. I can only keep working on my skills and strength, and when the opportunity arises, I will grab it with both hands,” Iyer said.