Knock ! Knock ! It is Shreyas Iyer at the doors of team India

Sanjay Bhatnagar

Lucknow: A total of 1321 runs in 11 Ranji Trophy matches ,the highest in the season, with as many scores of 50+ including four centuries averaging 73 and another strokeful half century in the Irani trophy match against Rest of India, what more a cricketer can ask for to stake his claim in the senior side.

It has been a dream run for 21-year old Mumbaikar Shreyas Iyer who is knocking the doors of senior Indian team with his stellar performance in the domestic circuit helping his side Mumbai to get 41^st Ranji title.

A master stroke maker looks ahead of his age when it comes to score freely even in the crunch situation. ‘’ I love to play my strokes in any situation,’’ what Shreay Iyer once said when asked if he has moulded himself on the lines of Virendra Sehwag. He reminds Rohit Sharma of Sehwag and another Mumbaikar Milind Rege calls him a 'destroyer' of bowling.

Trained and nurtured under Praveen Amre, the former under-19 player was seen spearheading the young batting brigade of Mumbai after the greats like Wasim Zaffer and Amol Mazumdar no more in the side and Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma more busy on national duty.

Shreyas had an equally attractive season in the last IPl scoring 400 plus runs with strike rate of more than 120. He ,in fact, was snapped up by Delhi Daredevils for a whopping sum of 2.6 crore, 26 times his base price of Rs 10 lakhs.

There could be some arguments about right time to rope him in the Indian team considering the already crowded upper order likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Rahane and Virat in the forefront and K L Rahul and Murali Vijay on the fringe.

A cricketing great Dilip vengsarkar, however, has other ideas. He feels Iyer is a top class player and ready for international cricket. According to Vengsarkar, it is important for a player to get selected when he is young and in form. Former Indian great was particularly impressed by Shreyas's century in Ranji final.

Let us see how long does it he take to get into the senior side but the statistics suggest another delightful cricketer is in the making. Now all eyes will be on him as to how he performs in this edition of IPL which, in the past, has worked as the launching pad for many of the current lot-Hardik Pandya to name the one.