India vs New Zealand, 1st T20I: Shreyas Iyer makes his international debut at Feroz Shah Kotla

Shreyas Iyer makes his international debut in Delhi. (Source: BCCI)

Shreyas Iyer makes his debut for India when they play New Zealand in the first of the three match T20I series at New Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. Interestingly, the start of Iyer’s international career coincides with the end of Ashish Nehra’s. Iyer has been one of Mumbai’s most consistent batsmen in the Ranji Trophy over the past two years. The Delhi crowd would also be familiar with him as he is a regular for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League and won the Emerging Player of the Year award in 2015.

Proud moment for young Shreyas Iyer as he receives his T20I cap from @RaviShastriOfc #TeamIndia #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/6Men3m6ciz

— BCCI (@BCCI) 1 November 2017

Iyer will be playing in the contentious no. 4 position. India haven’t been able to settle in on one candidate for the position. Off late, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik and even MS Dhoni have played in the position. As a matter of fact, India have played 10 different players in the position since the 2015 World Cup. Rahane is slated to play for Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match against Odisha in the absence of Iyer.

Good luck to Shreyas Iyer, a well deserved break.👍🏻

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) 1 November 2017

India beat New Zealand 2-1 in the preceding ODI series. Of late, they have steam rolled all opposition they have faced at home and India hence maybe looked at as favourites. At the same time, New Zealand are the no.1 team in the world in the shortest format of the game and India are yet to beat them. In fact, New Zealand have thus far won all T20I matches they have played so far.