AUS vs IND, 2nd ODI: Shreyas Iyer lauds Aussie batters for Adelaide win; says series loss ‘hurts’

India batter Shreyas Iyer heaped praise on Australia’s middle-order batters for anchoring their side to a narrow two-wicket victory in the second One-Day International at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.

“Credit where it’s due, I think they played brilliantly. The way they batted, rotated the strike, I think it was a superb performance. Cooper [Connolly], especially, being a youngster, coming and showing so much maturity to finish off the game, that shows a lot of character,” Iyer said at the post-match press conference.

Connolly hit an unbeaten 61 off 53 deliveries, and combined with Matthew Short and Mitch Owen to get Australia to the target of 265 runs in the 47th over.

Even though failed in its defence, Iyer added that India felt it had a fighting total on board. Rohit Sharma and Iyer struck half-centuries and put up a 118-run stand for the third wicket, which laid the foundation for India’s innings.

“We were just saying that let’s build the momentum. [Josh] Hazlewood was bowling well and the ball was seaming in and out, it wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on, especially at the start. It wasn’t easy to score runs so we just decided to rotate the strike as much as possible and see to it that we come to a total where we feel that we can charge with our bowlers,” Iyer said.

Iyer also pointed out that Australia making the most of bowler-friendly conditions contributed to the side taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

“It definitely hurts. I personally feel that the first game which we played, it [team’s performance] wasn’t that convincing because the rain played an important role and the benefit went to Australia. But coming into this game, it was definitely do-or-die for us and we wanted to place our best foot forward.

“Losing two crucial wickets at the start and then to build up that innings, it takes a lot of effort and I feel the way Australian bowled on such wicket, they had a fair bit of advantage at the start and they utilized it pretty well,” Iyer said.

The three-match series was an anticipated affair with Rohit and Virat Kohli making their first international appearance since the ICC Champions Trophy triumph. However, Iyer too marked his first India outing after the triumph in Dubai. He was omitted from India’s T20 squad for the Asia Cup despite a run-laden Indian Premier League season with the Punjab Kings.

Iyer said that playing the India A series and domestic competitions through the hiatus helped him hit the ground running.

“I came from the domestic season in that tournament [England series at home] and my performance was exceptional. Like I said, when you play domestic, you get a kind of confidence because there are runs behind you.

“[The chances I get] It’s not in my hands. I will go to the ground, the performance is in my hands and definitely by God’s grace, I got that opportunity [in Champions Trophy] and I maximized it,” Iyer said.

Before his return in Australia, Iyer was also a part of the India A squad for four-day games against Australia A in Lucknow. However, he pulled out of the series after one game due to a recurring back injury and was subsequently not picked for the home Test series against West Indies.

Explaining the decision to but his Test aspiration on the backburner, Iyer said: “When I came to red-ball season, I found out that when I fielded for a few overs, my intensity went down. The intensity has to be maintained at the international level. In ODIs, you know that you will get rest the next day and you can recover, so based on that, I took that decision.”

Iyer also opened up about his upright batting stance that has helped him mark an uptick in form through the past year.

“Since last year, I wanted to have an upright stance where the bounce is a little bit more than expected and based on that, I worked with my coach and we developed this new technique. It was suiting me pretty well. The way I grew up playing, I predominantly had an upright stance and I just was like, ‘let’s go back to my old technique and see how it paces up’. So yeah, I backed myself and then from there on, I started in the domestic and till now, I’ve been continuing with the same,” Iyer said.

Published on Oct 23, 2025