Shreyas Iyer has been criticised for getting out on short balls, but he didn’t let the problem impact him in the first ODI between India and New Zealand. After a quick fall of a few wickets, he stood his ground and scored 80 off 76 balls with the help of 4 fours and as many sixes.
His effort took the Men in Blue to 306/7 in 50 overs after losing the toss. Iyer has the third-highest batting average in ODIs for India.
Highest ODI average for India (min 1000 runs)
57.68 – Virat Kohli
50.23 – MS Dhoni
49.25 – Shreyas Iyer*
48.58 – Rohit Sharma
Shikhar Dhawan (72) and Shubman Gill (50) gave India a terrific start, but their dismissals led to a flurry of wickets before Iyer, and Sanju Samson stitched an important partnership.
India are without Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, who were rested after the ICC T20 World Cup.
Earlier, the sub-continent team thumped the Kiwis by 1-0 in a three-match T20I series.