Shreyas Iyer gave an update on his wrist injury after Punjab Kings’ win over Gujarat Titans and praised debutant Cooper Connolly for his knock that helped the team complete the chase despite a late collapse.
Connolly scored an unbeaten 72 off 44 balls to guide the Punjab Kings to a three-wicket win in their first IPL match in Mullanpur.
The injury scare occurred during the chase of 163. In the 12th over, Iyer was at the non-striker’s end when Connolly fired at Rashid Khan. Iyer did not have time to move away and the ball hit his wrist. He fell to the ground in pain, which caused concern in the team management and in the dugout.
Head coach Ricky Ponting and support staff watched closely as the physiotherapist treated Iyer. He later batted again but was dismissed on the next ball he faced.
Speaking after the match, Iyer said: “All I can say about the hand is that it is pretty, same as before, I don’t want to curse anything. I just want to stay positive and hope everything turns out well,” Iyer said.
He also spoke about Connolly’s innings. “Cooper has a great mentality and I hope he continues his form. I’ve seen him play for Australia. Some of the shots he played were surreal to watch, especially Rashid’s.”
Iyer said the team remained calm after losing wickets in quick succession. “I was concentrating on my hand inside, icing it, and suddenly we lost two consecutive wickets – these things happen in the IPL. You have to keep your composure. Cooper was there, he was composed and calm,” he said.
He also praised Vijaykumar Vyshak, who took 3/34, and Yuzvendra Chahal, who took 2/28, as Punjab Kings restricted Gujarat Titans to 162/6. Shubman Gill (39) and Jos Buttler (38) were the main contributors for Gujarat.
“Vyshak is maintaining the level he had last season, he is a great player,” Iyer said.
Connolly, who was named Man of the Match, said he was happy with his first IPL appearance. “I’m looking forward to the experience of playing with world-class players.”
“Putting on a show tonight was nice. But it’s a team performance; we played as a team tonight, and that’s all we talked about. It’s just a bit of a refresher. I had a couple of weeks at home (after the T20 World Cup), just to refresh and reset, spend some time with family and friends. And that was probably the point where I changed, and it was like, yeah, okay, I’m just going to reset myself and go into the IPL fresh,” he added.