'It is the elephant in the room' – Aakash Chopra on Iyer's struggle against pacers

Shreyas Iyer has been a consistent performer for team India, and on the back of it, he has secured his place in the middle order. The Mumbai-born scored 36 and 40 in the first two games of the ongoing T20I series against South Africa. 

However, his long-standing struggles against the pace have again come to the spotlight. In both the T20Is against the Proteas side, he looked extremely uncomfortable against pace while taking the spinners to the cleaners.  

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra highlighted the issue and asserted that the visitors have recognised and exploited the weakness of the 27-year-old against pace; hence, every time he comes to bat, Temba Bavuma takes no time to deploy a fast bowler. 

The cricketer-turned-commentator further said that Iyer needs to address this issue as soon as possible as he can't keep scoring runs just against spinners and stay quiet against the pace. 

"South Africa has realised that to keep Shreyas quiet, all they need to do is to employ their fast bowlers. He (Shreyas) has struggled a bit against pace. It's an issue that needs to be addressed. It's the elephant in the room - the guy has been scoring runs but going forward, he cannot just be expected to score against spinners. He has to come good against the pace too," Chopra said on his YouTube channel on Tuesday. 

"Actually, he has fared well against pacers of other teams but South African pacers have figured out how to keep him quiet. They know how to stop Shreyas Iyer from scoring runs. Whenever he plays spin (bowling), Shreyas scores plenty of runs but can't expect to be playing spinners all the time," Chopra added. 

Meanwhile, in the post-match conference of the second T20I vs South Africa, Shreyas Iyer said that they would stick to team India's strategy of attacking with the bat throughout the innings even if the team is losing wickets. 

"We have made this plan that we will keep going no matter what happens. Even if we keep losing wickets, it's our game plan and in the future too, we will go in with the same mindset. We will back ourselves and back our instincts," said Iyer after the second T20I in Cuttack.

India and South Africa will now be squaring off for the third T20I on Tuesday at Visakhapatnam. The visitors, who are currently leading the series 2-0, will look to take an unassailable lead in the five-match series. India, meanwhile, needs to win this match to keep the series alive.