"Can't Play Negative On This Wicket": Shreyas Iyer On 92-Run Knock On Day 1 Of India-Sri Lanka 2nd Test

His counter-attacking knock put India in the driver's seat in the second Test against Sri Lanka and Shreyas Iyer asserted that batting with a defensive mind-set does not help on difficult wickets like the M Chinnaswamy track. Iyer's combative 92 under pressure guided India to 252 after the team was struggling at 126 for five. Batting fearlessly, Iyer charged down the wicket quite often, which he said was the best strategy to negate the spin. "My plan when I went out to bat was to cut down the spin (negate turn), so I decided to step out," Iyer told media after opening day's play.

"As I was standing on the middle stump, I was cutting down across the wicket so I could cover the spin and can take a single in the mid-wicket area and I am confident when I do that. When you step out, you play with the mind of the bowler and spoil his line and length," he explained his strategy.

Iyer said letting negativity affect batting is not his style, so he backed his attacking instincts.

"The players who defended the ball, there was a lot of chance of nicking. The ball was staying low and there was variable bounce on the wicket. You can't play negative on this wicket, just keep defending the ball.

"You need to have that positive intent when you step out on the field and you know that the wicket is not that great and obviously bowler-friendly, so my mindset was to play each ball on its merit and see to it that I get runs on every ball."

He missed out on his second Test century but he does not regret, saying looking at the bigger picture, the team was helped by his knock.

"I am disappointed that I missed out on a hundred, but if you see from the team's perspective, we got to a very fighting total, which is 250 especially on this wicket. And