Team India batter Shreyas Iyer was elated with his counter-attacking half-century despite losing the Duleep Trophy match against India C. Iyer led the India D side in the domestic tournament, but he failed to make an impact in the first innings and scored just 9 in the first innings. However, he managed to bounce back in the second innings and scored a fine half-century to make a case for himself to make a comeback in the Indian team.

Iyer was excluded from the BCCI annual contract list earlier this year when he made himself unavailable for a Ranji Trophy match, citing fitness reasons. The stylish batter was picked in the Test series against England but was later pulled back after a complaint of back spasms, which was also the case of missing him in the Ranji match.

Seeking to make an India comeback, Iyer struck 54 off 44 balls and laced his innings with nine fours and a six against India C. However, young left-arm spinner Manav Suthar grabbed seven wickets to engineer India D's batting collapse and fashion a four-wicket win for India C.

Despite the loss, Iyer was elated with his knock in the second innings, where he was looking to show positive intent.

"It was necessary for me to show intent because their bowlers were bowling great, in the right areas and the ball was seaming as well. I just wanted to take the attack and see if we could get a decent total on board. When the ball got old, it was stopping a bit. I wanted to capitalise on my intent, but, I would take that fifty any day," Shreyas Iyer said after the conclusion of the match.

‘Pitch did not offer much’: Shreyas Iyer

The stylish batter said that apart from the few patches, there wasn't much on the surface. However, he hopes his team will learn from the mistakes and bounce back in the next match.

"The pitch did not offer much, there was no spin for the bowlers. Saransh bowled in great areas. There were few patches on the pitch created by the fast bowlers where the ball spun from outside of the off-stump, other than that it was quite dead. Hopefully, we learn from this and move on," Iyer concluded his post-match interview with the broadcaster.

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