“It’s not hard, honestly,” Iyer said when asked about the expectations surrounding him, as he took over a side that had not lost a series or a tournament in three years. “I feel it’s a privilege for me to take over the captaincy. Every individual dreams of captaining for the Indian team. And taking on from [that] high, definitely I love pressure, and I feel it’s a privilege.
“So for me to thrive under pressure, to learn from these moments is definitely going to make me better going forward. And that’s my mindset right now. Not thinking much about how people are going to think about this particular series because see, good and bad, it’s part and parcel of this game.
“Going forward, I need to be extremely positive in how I’m going to basically nurture everyone who is playing around me, especially in overseas conditions. We know we are going to play in Australia and many other series before that. So the best camaraderie to fit in these conditions… our goal is that going forward, that is going to be our plan.”
The conditions and ever-changing dimensions and shapes of England grounds, Iyer said, was the hardest part of leading the team in this series. “We kept on going from one venue to another and we kept on facing challenges, especially in terms of the dimensions, the grounds, the conditions,” Iyer said. “Just to adapt to it as quickly as we could have anticipated… that didn’t happen. That was one challenge. And the other one is definitely they outplayed us in all departments, I would say. So I think the combinations of all these points definitely led to this result.”
The batters struggled to come to terms with the slight extra bounce and the spongy nature of surfaces in Ireland and England. The bowlers, especially the spinners, were a distant second to the home bowlers. However, Iyer spoke about the lapses in fielding too. Even in the last T20I, Harry Brook was dropped early in his innings of 95 off 45.
“Just in terms of the fielding, I think it plays a key role, especially building that momentum and energy around the team environment,” Iyer said. “We went to Ireland, and we fielded here. I think we were definitely dominated by them in that aspect. And why I feel fielding is very important is because it basically creates a rhythm in the team. So especially in T20 where your fitness demands you to be agile, you need to be aware about how the conditions are going to be, especially different outfields and different wickets. So I think that’s one department if we are probably the best, if we basically dream to be the best team, we’ll definitely prosper.”
“We needed to try the best combination that would be perfect in these conditions,” Iyer said about dropping Sooryavanshi. “And we also wanted a right-hander to go on with Abhishek. So that was one of the major reasons. I was the only one out of all the left-handers who’s a right-hander. So we wanted to try a different combination, which would be suitable for this particular game. And he’s a gun batsman. He has won so many series for us in the past.”
