World Cup 2023: Ahead of India vs Sri Lanka, Shreyas Iyer faces short balls in nets session; Rahul Dravid also joins in

India middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer was seen working hard in the nets in Mumbai on Tuesday, ahead of the Men in Blue’s 2023 World Cup clash against Sri Lanka on Thursday (2 November).

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According to a report in The Indian Express, Shreyas, under the watchful eyes of India head coach Rahul Dravid, was seen facing short balls during India’s training session on Tuesday.

Shreyas had two separate net sessions. He faced throwdown specialist Nuwan Seneviratne during the first session at the net that was far away from the main pitch.

Later, Shreyas trained at the nets that was nearer to the main pitch, where Rahul Dravid also joined with some throws to the batter.

According to the report, during the first session, Shreyas tried to pull the short balls for sixes, slamming over the left side of the net and clearing the stands regularly. Even after the Sri Lankan thrower has had chats with Shreyas, the latter look to slam it up in the air, rather than keeping the ball down.

During the second net session, the thrower unleashed the ball from around the wickets, and the balls were short below the chest high, outside off stump. This was in contrast with the first session of bouncers, where the thrower had delivered from over the wickets.

And since the balls in the second session were outside off and did not offer that much bounce, Shreyas went ahead with hitting the ball towards the side-net, rather than going on the leg-side.

Much recently, Shreyas Iyer has struggled against the short balls, even getting dismissed for just four runs by Mark Wood in similar fashion against England.

Meanwhile, News18 CricketNext reported that Shubman Gill had not taken part in India’s optional nets session on Tuesday, while KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Ravindra Jadeja batted in the nets. Ravichandran Ashwin was involved in some bowling practice, with some net bowlers and throwdown specialists in action too.

India have maintained their perfect start to the World Cup, winning six out of as many matches. This includes victories against Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and England. After the game against Sri Lanka, India will take on South Africa (5 November) and Netherlands 12 November) to round off the league stage.