Iyer takes it a notch higher!

India’s Shreyas Iyer during his 45-run knock v Australia in Dubai on Tuesday. Pic/Getty Images

As he missed a straight delivery from Adam Zampa that scooted through on pitching, defeated his cut and crashed into the off-stump, Shreyas Iyer threw his head back in disappointment. Maybe a little disgust, too. He had put in all the hard yards, he had slipped nicely into the role of Virat Kohli's ally, he had brought a slightly unsteady ship to an even keel, but there was plenty of work still to do. Iyer had good reason to feel disappointed, perhaps even disgusted with himself. Especially given his recent form.

There are batters who fire in fits and starts, unleashing one unforgettable innings now and then around a sea of middling efforts. And then there are those like Iyer, who hop on to a good thing and reel off a series of impressive scores, none stand-out on their own but collectively speaking to his consistency, to his versatility, to the value he brings to his side.

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Iyer wasn't guaranteed to start the final build-up to the Champions Trophy, a three-match home series against England, until Kohli pulled up with a sore knee before the first game in Nagpur. A late-night match-eve call from Rohit Sharma was the cue for the right-hander to reel off 59 from 36; his subsequent knocks read 44 (47 balls), 78 (64b), 15 (17b), 56 (67b), 79 (98b) and 45 (62b), the last against Australia in Tuesday's semi-final. It's a fabulous sequence that does justice to how he has been able to tailor his game at No. 4 to the needs of the situation. The last three knocks, against Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia respectively, have come under some pressure, each crucial to the ultimate success though the headlines have been grabbed by Kohli and Varun Chakravarthy.

Fluent starter

Iyer often starts fluently and keeps going though like the rest, he can also struggle for timing on slow tracks. Against Pakistan, for instance, he scored at less than 50 per cent in the first half of his innings, when Kohli talked him through a frustrating phase, but caught up with the scoring rate because he has so many shots and is unafraid to play them. Sometimes, he seems to have three or four strokes to the same ball; that, more than the lack of scoring options, can prove a trickier proposition.

Excellent fielder

Deceptively quick between the wickets, Iyer is also a fabulous outfielder who is eclipsed by the magic of Ravindra Jadeja and the magnetism of Kohli. He is as fast as anyone across the turf, loping strides getting him quicker to the ball than one would imagine. On Tuesday, he charged in like the wind from deep backward square, picked up the ball in one smooth motion and fired a direct hit from 35 yards out to catch Alex Carey, returning for a second run, short of his ground. It was a dismissal that potentially saved India 15 runs, at the very least, because Carey was on to a good thing by then. If it didn't get the attention it merited, blame it on Kohli and his mastery of a run-chase. As much as Iyer, India would like him to kick on, to translate his 50s and 70s to a sixth ODI hundred. May be on Sunday, in the final, Shreyas? How about that?

195
Total runs Shreyas Iyer has scored in four games at this Champions Trophy