Indian middle order batsman Shreyas Iyer has reported at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore and has opted to rest and recover for his back injury that has sidelined him for presumably the whole of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season, which begins on Friday.
The right-handed 28-year-old batsman Shreyas Iyer has been troubled by back injury since the end of the last year when he was on tour of Bangladesh with the national side and was performing at the top of his ability.
Having missed the ODI series at home against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, Shreyas Iyer returned to the national side to play for the Test side against Australia, but he suffered with a troubled back again.
Shreyas Iyer had already missed the first Test of the four match series in Nagpur, and he could not come out to bat in the third Test at Indore and was eventually ruled out of the Test match as well as the fourth and final Test match and the three match ODI series that followed.
According to a report in Cricbuzz, Shreyas Iyer has decided not to go for a surgery for his back trouble and instead he has gone to the NCA for his “periodic treatment.” Shreyas Iyer will also be taking an injection on March 29 whereas the staff at the NCA will determine his stay at the academy.
Shreyas Iyer, who was replaced by middle order batsman Nitish Rana as a captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ahead of IPL 2023, wants to be available for selection for the final of the ICC World Test Championship against Australia later this year in June.
Keeping that in mind, the young cricketer has let go the decision of undergoing a surgery which would have kept him out of action for possibly six months, threatening his participation in the 50 over World Cup as well which India will be organising in October and November this year.
A source was quoted as saying,
“He has met the specialist and the NCA officials. All are on the same page that the operation can be deferred. He will follow the experts’ advice.”
“Poor guy. It just was such an unfortunate incident. He had to wait all day to bat and then when the day got over, the issue he had with his back, recurred. He was sent to the hospital to take scans. I don’t know the exact report of the scans, but he does not seem to be doing that well,”
said India captain Rohit Sharma after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out.
“Obviously, that’s why he’s not present here, so we don’t know the exact status of how long he will take to recover or when he will be back. When it happened, it did not look that great. I hope he recovers quickly and comes back and plays again,”
he added.