When India crashed out of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup in 2019, the key culprit behind the defeat was known to all. It wasn’t an individual per se, but rather a collective failure to lock in on a definite No. 4 that led to India’s falling in the semi-final against New Zealand. Ever since opting to move on from Yuvraj Singh who donned that role in the Champions Trophy in 2017, the Men in Blue spent two years to find an appropriate batter for the two-down position.

The demands were simple. They needed someone who could take on spinners at will in the middle overs, arrest a collapse, and flourish a finish – a mixed bag package that is becoming increasingly rare in the current day and age. As the team found itself languishing at 5/3 in the last-four clash against the Kiwis, Team India desperately lacked an individual with the aforementioned qualities who could steer the modest 240-run chase.

Soon after the World Cup though, the team got their act together. They experimented with a new-look middle-order, with the likes of Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya slotting into important roles. However, one player who definitely made more difference than others was Shreyas Iyer. In 63 ODIs, Shreyas averages 47.69, striking at 102.14 – on the back of 19 half-centuries and five tons. He is the first-ever Indian No. 4 to score 500+ runs in an ODI World Cup, aggregating 530 in the 2023 edition of the tournament.

One aspect that stood out was his ability to strike clean against spinners, something that India lacked in 2019. He is an avid mover of his feet, often coming down the track to take the attack to the slower bowlers. Iyer compels them to change their lengths, being equally proficient against both leg and off spin. The fact that he is prolific square of the wicket and also in the V ensures that he is not deprived of scoring options against any spin bowling discipline. But, most importantly, it is the ability to amplify the intensity of runs in the middle overs that helps him set the Indian team apart from the opponents.

The semi-final of 2023 ODI World Cup was an instrumental example of that. Coming in to bat after Shubman Gill got retired hurt for 80, Iyer hammered 105 off 70 deliveries, scoring four fours and eight maximums – maximising his acclimatisation to his home ground at Wankhede. It is the statistics of the Kiwi spinners that tell the real tale though.

The trio of Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra, and Glenn Phillips collectively went for 134 runs in their 23 overs, conceding at 5.82 without taking a single wicket. While Santner kept things quiet at his end with a spell of 10-1-51-0, the duo of Rachin and Glenn were attacked as they gave away 93 runs in their eight overs at over 11 runs per over.

Iyer was the key orchestrator of this attack, unleashing his big-hitting skills optimally, scoring at a rate of 150 and getting India that important cushion of a few extra runs to get to 397/4. The fact that New Zealand produced a scare at one point and finished at 327 shows the batting paradise that existed at Wankhede that night, and it was Iyer’s knock that was the differential factor though Virat Kohli bagged all headlines by bringing up his 50^th ODI ton the same day.

As per an article by Cricbuzz, Iyer’s impact was such that the eventual champions’ Australian team sweated extensively discovering a way to unlock his weaknesses a day before the grand finale. They knew that Iyer was the player who could inflict the most damage and specially devised thorough plans for him, eventually restricting him by making the most of his tentative feet movement early on in the innings with Pat Cummins taking a nick off his bat.

One and a half years since then, with just three ODIs having been played in the interim, Iyer is suddenly uncertain of his place in the XI. He said after the first ODI against England in Nagpur that he wasn’t a part of the plans until Virat Kohli’s knee took a knock, forcing him out of the match.

“I wasn’t supposed to play the first game. As we all know, Virat unfortunately got injured and then I got the opportunity. But I had kept myself prepared. I knew that, you know, at any point in time, I could get a chance to play. And the same thing happened to me last year during the Asia Cup. I got injured, and someone else came, and he scored a century,” he said.

Regardless of the strategies, it would be arguably incredulous for Team India to shelve a player who solved their long-standing middle-order woes in ODIs – a key aspect of the game that arguably clinched the World Cup for them in 2011, and the lack of the same that has halted them from repeating those heroics ever since.