Shreyas relishes strong middle-order competition

New Delhi, Feb. 19: With 16 months left for the World Cup, India have a couple of middle-order slots still up for grabs and Shreyas Iyer sees this as an “opportunity”, as he tries to make a case for himself in the coming days.

Iyer is seen as one of the contenders for either No. 4 or 5 position in the ODI line-up and will be competing with the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik and possibly Suresh Raina.

The 23-year-old Mumbaikar though, is not at all tensed. “Competition for a batting slot has never worried me. I would say it always brings the best out of me. For me, battling for a slot is not a threat but an opportunity,” Iyer said after coming back from the South Africa tour.

“Also, I should only be looking at improving my game and not think about who are my competitors,” said Iyer, who scored 18 and 30 in the 4th and 5th ODIs respectively.

While he has had a successful ‘A’ tour of South Africa, travelling with the senior team has been a different experience for the talented right-hander.

“The two games that I batted, I found the pitches to be much quicker than what I played on during the A tour last year. The pitches in Pretoria during A tour was not as quick as these ones.

“It was a learning experience. And don’t forget the pressure of playing to packed houses. Well, I have had experience of packed houses in IPL but this was international cricket.”