An Oddsworth Opinion
The batter Shreyas Iyer is really being measured against
The story
A Hindustan Times report says Shreyas Iyer's form has fallen away since the UK tour, pointing to a low average over his last 10 innings. It asks why India's T20I captain is failing to match the Punjab Kings batter who controlled the middle overs.
Hindustan Times · 6 October at 06:16 BSTIyer vs Iyer: Why India’s T20I captain is struggling to match the Punjab Kings maverick who dominated middle oversRead the full storyThe Hindustan Times reports that Shreyas Iyer's form has declined significantly since India's UK tour, averaging 25.75 across his last 10 innings, and asks why the T20I captain cannot match the Punjab Kings batter who ran the middle overs. Put that figure beside the going rate: top-seven batters in men's T20s have averaged 23.53 over the last two years, which leaves the Iyer of the report a shade ahead of the ordinary top-order batter.
It takes an unusual rival to make an average like that look like failure.
The other Iyer
The rival is his own last two years. Across all men's T20s in that time, Iyer has scored at a strike rate of 164.4, where top-seven batters have gone at 130.1.
That is the batter the report is pining for, and India have every right to want him back.
Our ratings take a cooler view. They have him as the 21st-best T20 batter in the world, worth about 3 runs a match more than an average player. A very good batter with two outstanding years behind him, now being marked against those years.
Where the runs went
The UK tour itself was hardly his failure. Iyer made 68 from 47 balls against England and later 80 not out from 49, and India lost the second of those matches by nine wickets. They lost four in a row to England, one of them by 125 runs.
The quiet spell came afterwards. Against Zimbabwe he made 28 not out from 24 balls, 25 from 20 and 27 from 18, and against Japan last month he made 16 from 12.
India beat Zimbabwe all three times and then beat Japan by two runs. Winning covered for a captain whose bat had gone quiet.
Career average 35.6Not out
The captain's job
Our ratings have India as the best T20 side in the world, about 40 runs a match better than an average side. A side that good can carry a captain making twenties against Zimbabwe.
Being carried is no role for this batter, though. An average of 25.75 would do for most top-order batters, and Iyer's own across the last two years of T20s is 45.33.
The other Iyer set the bar. The captain has to go back and bat like him.