Shreyas Iyer reveals how Suryakumar Yadav helped him during his Ranji Trophy days

Shreyas Iyer on Friday became the 16th Indian batter to score a Test century on debut. Iyer played a magnificent knock during India's first innings of the first Test against New Zealand at Kanpur's Green Park Stadium. Iyer had come to bat at a time when India were struggling to put runs on the board and were losing wickets at regular intervals. Iyer came in and forged a crucial 100-run fifth-wicket partnership with Ravindra Jadeja to help India reach a respectable total. The right-handed batter scored 105 off 171 balls to finish his inning.

After the match, while having a chat with Mumbai Indians batter Suryakumar Yadav, Iyer recalled his debut Ranji Trophy season and how the former had backed him. Iyer thanked Suryakumar Yadav for backing him during his initial days at the level. The 26-year-old revealed that Yadav continued to back him despite a poor start to his Ranji Trophy career. Iyer said he thought he would be out of the team after the first four innings. 

Iyer said the Kanpur stadium has been really lucky for him as his team was kind of in a similar situation during his debut season with Mumbai under Suryakumar Yadav's captaincy. Iyer said Mumbai were 20 or 30 for five when he came to bat for his side and notched a 150-run partnership with tailenders to help them achieve a defendable total. Iyer replicated the heroics against New Zealand as he helped India come out of a difficult situation by scoring an incredible century. 

India vs New Zealand

As far as the ongoing Test match is concerned, New Zealand pacer Tim Southee and openers Tom Latham and Will Young brought the Kiwis back into the game with their incredible performances on Friday following Iyer's ton. While Southee picked a five-wicket-haul to restrict India under a score of 350, the openers notched up a 100-run partnership to put on a solid score for New Zealand before the end of play on Day 2. 

Will young was dismissed by R Ashwin after scoring 89 runs for his team on Saturday morning. India, on the other hand, had posted a total of 345 runs after the first innings, courtesy of a spectacular century by debutant Shreyas Iyer and a couple of half-centuries from Shubman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja. 

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