You can't play negative on such wickets: Shreyas Iyer on spin-friendly Chinnaswamy track

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.

Read AlsoIndia vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test: Shreyas Iyer negates spinners on turner with superb 92, pacers put Sri Lanka on the mat under lights

Shreyas Iyer's pyrotechnics with the bat drove India to a position of strength after Sri Lanka made early inroads on a spinner-friendly track with the second Test heavily tilting in favour of the hosts on Saturday.

"My plan when I went out to bat was to cut down the spin (negate turn), so I decided to step out," Iyer told the 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