An emphatic dialogue delivered by Farhan Akhtar, who played the character of Milkha Singh, is a goosebump-worthy moment in the legendary sprinter’s biopic. The coach of Pakistan’s ace athlete warns him that the race he is about to run in Lahore could prove to be the last of his life. “Daudunga bhi vaise hi,” Farhan says with a smirk, asserting that he’ll make sure he sprints in a way that is fitting for the occasion. Pressure did bring the best out of the Indian champion, with President Ayub Khan bestowing upon him the moniker of ‘Flying Sikh’.
You need that dog in you to excel in elite sport. In fact, that kind of supreme self-belief is what has made Shreyas Iyer the cricketer he is. In just his third Ranji Trophy match as a 20-year-old, the dashing right-hander rescued Mumbai from 57/6. He stitched together four amazing knocks at the business end of ODI World Cup 2023, where pace merchants and media alike came for his throat. His heroics in Dhaka snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on a raging turner. Being on the battlefront, Iyer shred jetlag in style against Baroda on return from an A tour and composed his maiden international century in the seaming conditions of New Zealand.
India were in the trenches too heading into their sixth game on the tour of United Kingdom, none of which they had managed to win. It was a baptism of fire for Iyer, instated as captain having not played a T20I since December 2023 due to India’s inability to accommodate him, with Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma occupying middle-order positions. With the series opener in Durham falling prey to rain, Iyer won an important toss for India at Bristol. “Must-win game now!’’ Ravi Shastri boomed. “Certainly, and we are going to play like that,” Iyer said without missing a beat. “We saw the fearlessness which we’ve been carrying for the first two games. It’s just that we are not able to execute the plans as much as possible, but today, it’s a fresh day, fresh start, and the boys are in pretty high spirits.”
While Iyer’s enthusiasm wasn’t reflected in India’s performance as a group, with the visitors finding themselves at the receiving end of a demolition job, the skipper walked the talk. An aggressive modus operandi was on the cards from his counterpart Harry Brook, after all he had the world champions trailing 0-2 in his own backyard, so Jofra Archer was given an extra over outside of the PowerPlay. It was an English attempt to nip the game in the bud, for spicy hard lengths had coerced Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Ishan Kishan into identical dismissals, their horizontal blades trying to force the ball to the leg side from outside off as if the setting was an April evening at Chinnaswamy.
A much-needed six for India from Shreyas 🔥 pic.twitter.com/IfEadKaXwh
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 9, 2026
Although few of his wickets can be attributed to luck in this series, the sheepish smile on the face of Archer suggested that Iyer’s wicket in Nottingham was indeed a stroke of fortune. He picked the ball thumpingly off his pads but the unrestrained flick landed in the palms of long leg. As the express quick brought on the eighth over having inflicted another collapse upfront, Brook had four men on the fence waiting for a miscued hook or whip. Instead the inevitable bouncer was upper cut for six, with Iyer having to arch his back prodigiously to get his body out of the line. It was an elegant version of the withdrawing slash he has added to his repertoire to keep the bumpers at bay, increasing the aesthetic value of his innings which had so far comprised a backfoot punch off Sam Curran as well as a fine glance off Josh Tongue.
That physics-defying ramp against Archer was the first of the five maximums Iyer would go on to produce, with Adil Rashid bearing the brunt. Attacking spin was the most logical course of action given the circumstances – Archer and Tongue have combined for 12 scalps – and Iyer was India’s best bet considering his proven technique versus the tweakers. He used his feet and hit with the turn to clear the straight boundaries, compelling an unsettled Rashid to drag his length back. Out came the cuts and pulls, fetching Iyer 44 of the 16 deliveries he faced from the wily old fox.
“He’s one of the guys who’s been able to exploit the ability to use the crease and that’s the way you have to play in these conditions,’’ Ryan ten Doeschate said. “He’s batted really well throughout the series,’’ the assistant coach highlighted, referring to Iyer’s 68 that allowed India to fetch 95/1 from ten overs of spin in Durham.
“England have used Rashid as an attacking option; Will Jacks has bowled a bit more defensively. I believe we could’ve gone harder against Jacks,” ten Doeschate analyzed. The off-spinner has accomplished an economy of 7.08, the lowest across both teams.
India failed to post an above-par total on the board due to the dearth of support, even as Iyer’s presence in the middle ensured a left-right pairing for the better part considering their playing eleven was made up of eight southpaws. Brook and Phil Salt scored 146 between them off just 68 balls, only a dozen less than India’s combined effort.
England’s captain courageous drove home the advantage in ways more than one. He left covers entirely vacant for Shivam Dubey, stationing three men in the deep for the pull. He denied India any sniff whatsoever after Jos Buttler’s early departure, scooping his second ball for a funky six and drawing 19 in an over by Washington Sundar, whom India roped in to bolster their batting depth after the nightmare in Nottingham.
“We adapted to the surface really well. We thought of bowling on the top of the stumps and using the cutters, slightly shorter in length. They were the hardest to hit, especially cross-batted. We executed really well and the communication from the coaches onto the field was exceptional.”
A fairytale ending may not be in store for India, a la Milkha Singh, but an encore of Iyer’s brilliance in Southampton can help the visitors salvage some pride before BCCI conducts the post-mortem of an embarrassing fortnight.
