The day the Indian team arrived in Mumbai before their league match against Sri Lanka, Shreyas Iyer called Abhishek Nayar, the former all-rounder from Mumbai who is now a coach.
The following morning, Pravin Amre texted Iyer to let him know he would be attending the Wankhede stadium. Iyer has collaborated with the two experienced Mumbai professionals on several projects, and they were there to provide emotional support during delicate moments.
Nayar recognized the number as a distress call from India’s current No. 4 when it displayed on the screen.
He calls me most of the time in the off-season. However, this occurred during the World Cup. I thus recognized it as an SOS call, which he only makes when he is in danger.
Although Nayar,40, and Iyer,28, are from distinct Mumbai cricket eras, the elder has known the younger for a long time. Nayar thinks the issue was both technical and psychological, but she does not want to give too much away.
It was evident he was depressed. He was a little confused prior to the Sri Lanka game. I discussed with him how he might strategically target particular bowlers,” Nayar remarked.
Iyer has scored 134 runs in six games, including one half-century, prior to the match against the Islanders in Mumbai. Iyer scored 392 runs in four games after speaking with Nayar, including two hundreds, the second of which came against New Zealand in the semifinals and was crucial at 105 off of just 70 balls.
Amre and Nayar have collaborated with Iyer on several occasions throughout this crucial time. In order to enable Iyer to hit over the off-side as well, Amre claims he worked on the bat-lift and downward swing, which has seen some amazing aerial hits to seamers and spin.
In order to make sure he sees the ball with both eyes, Amre also opened his stance more and had an ophthalmologist assess which of the Iyer’s eyes was more dominant.
Nayar would try to strengthen Iyer’s base by spreading his feet apart to give him greater force.
After you take guard, base is essentially the area between the two legs. In the context of cricket, a batter cannot have a good foundation if their legs are near to one another. There’s no strength in them. In a pull shot, the batsman can rotate his shoulder and hip if there is more space than he can exert force in, according to Nayar.
During that recuperation time, Amre started working at the BKC indoor nets.
At the moment of collision, his bat was shutting, possibly due to the injury. To the on side, he was pulling the balls. Amre tells this newspaper that he struggled with his shoulder because the muscles hadn’t fully healed, which prevented him from finishing the shot.
Amre reports that he smiled when he witnessed Iyer smash South Africa’s Marco Jansen over mid-off, a shot that had Virat Kohli cheering from the non-striker’s end. And a little flashback to those times in Bandra.
Amre also forced Iyer to slightly adjust his posture in order to better align his right eye with the trajectory of the ball.
“In batting, vision and hand coordination account for 80% of the task; the eye is crucial.” I wanted him to open up a little bit more so that he can see the ball with both eyes and, as a result, has greater stability in his stance,” Amre explains.
Nayar was fortifying Iyer’s fundamental stance in the meantime. Iyer’s leg was “saath-saath” (together) when he faced the bowler before. He could not twist his shoulder without his leg locking. He can now swivel his shoulder due to the space, which allows him to produce force and strike