India vs West Indies: Shreyas Iyer becomes third fastest Indian to complete 1000 ODI runs, surpasses KL Rahul

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Port of Spain, July 23: India's top-order batsman Shreyas Iyer might be under some pressure with his struggle against short-pitched deliveries but the right-handed batter has had a good 2022 with the bat.

In the opening game of the three-ODI series against the West Indies at Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain (Trinidad), the Mumbaikar achieved a big milestone and joined an elite club. The right-handed batter completed 1000 ODI runs in the game and went on to become the third-fastest Indian to this milestone.

Batting in his 25th ODI innings, Iyer entered the club and equalled former India batter Navjot Singh Sidhu's record. Sidhu - who was known for his aggressive batting performances - also completed 1000 ODI runs in 25 innings.

Iyer's captain in the ongoing series, Shikhar Dhawan, and former India skipper Virat Kohli are the fastest Indians to aggregate 1000 ODI runs. Both Kohli and Dhawan took 24 innings to get to the milestone and Iyer becomes the third fastest Indian batter to enter this club.

Talking about his performance in the match, Iyer walked into the middle when his team was placed nicely. Initially, Iyer took some time to get a hang of the pitch and conditions and dealt only in singles and doubles. He freed up his arms later and smashed a couple of maximums and a boundary off West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran's overs and shifted his gears.

Iyer went on notching up his tenth fifty in the 50-overs format off 53 balls. But soon after he was sent back to the pavilion as Pooran took a blinder of a catch to end his innings.

Iyer had been scoring prolifically for India ever since he made his Test debut late last year. He garnered a lot of praise for his performances during the limited-overs series against West Indies and Sri Lanka at home and was looking in fine touch. Iyer's form with the bat, however, tapered down during the IPL where his struggles against short-pitched bouncers were exposed, and the bowlers exploited it to their advantage.

His fifty against West Indies would give him a lot of confidence and in the absence of several big players, Iyer would be looking to score consistently and keep himself in contention.

Fewest innings to 1000 ODI runs for India

24: Virat Kohli

24: Shikhar Dhawan

25: Shreyas Iyer

25: Navjot Singh Sidhu

27: KL Rahul