Never mind the short ball, Shreyas is superb at No. 4

When you watched Shreyas Iyer hit this six a week and a half ago, you probably weren't alone if you were reminded of this one.

It was at the Wankhede Stadium, against a Sri Lanka fast bowler, and the ball soared in a magnificent arc over long-on, and if the occasion wasn't quite as grand as April 2, 2011, Iyer's hit had the distinction of travelling the longer distance. So long, in fact, that it remains, with just one match of the league stage left to play, the longest of this World Cup at 106 metres.

Iyer's six was remarkable in other aspects too. It was the third six of his innings, off just the 16th ball he had faced. He had come in with India 193 for 2 after 30 overs, and had been tasked with ensuring their momentum didn't suffer for having lost Shubman Gill for 92. He tackled that task with relish, taking chances early in his innings and backing them to come off.

This was, in itself, characteristic of Iyer as an ODI No. 4, but particularly impressive given that he came into this game after back-to-back dismissals off mis-controlled pull shots, against New Zealand and England. These dismissals weren't just random ones, but fit neatly into a long-standing narrative of vulnerability against the short ball.

Among the many things that make India such a good team is how little media noise they allow to permeate into the dressing room. Even so, some of it probably does get through, and may in some way cloud a player's thinking even if the team management has done everything in its power to protect him from it.

Nothing about Iyer's innings against Sri Lanka, or his manner of constructing it, suggested he had walked in with the smallest measure of self-doubt.

Three days after that 56-ball 82 against Sri Lanka, Iyer entered with India 93 for 2 against South Africa. This time his team needed a different kind of innings from him, on a different kind of surface at Eden Gardens, where Keshav Maharaj had just bowled Gill with a ball that had turned square past his outside edge.

India were flying at that stage, going at nearly nine an over in the 11th over, but the wicket of Gill, off just the third legal ball of spin in the match, made them reassess their idea of a good total on this pitch. And given they had no real batting to follow Ravindra Jadeja at No. 7, they needed Iyer and Virat Kohli to bat through most of the middle overs.

On this day, Iyer scored just 12 off his first 35 balls before he hit his first boundary. By the time he was out in the 37th over, though, he had scored 77 off 87. This was a classic ODI innings, a product of caution against the opposition's biggest threats and calculated risk-taking against specific targets. Iyer scored 25 off 50 balls against Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada, and 52 off 37 against Marco Jansen, who endured a difficult day after being taken apart by Rohit Sharma in the first powerplay, and Tabraiz Shamsi and Aiden Markram, the two South African spinners turning their stock ball into the right-hand batter.

When Iyer paddled fine for the first four of his innings, Shamsi fell to the floor and directed an incredulous look at the batter. This may have partly been because Iyer had just played an outrageous shot, stepping across to the off side and meeting the ball in front of middle stump - he was surely lbw or bowled if he missed - but it was also, perhaps, a wordless "oh no, not again". Over two white-ball trips to India last year, Shamsi had taken a pasting from Iyer, going for 60 in 29 balls across three T20Is and one ODI. Shamsi probably recognised that Iyer was about to tear into him once again.

Iyer excels at this sort of targeted takedown. Of right-hand batters who have scored at least 100 ODI runs against offspinners and left-arm wristspinners (in-spin, in short) since the start of 2022, only Glenn Maxwell (165.09), Jos Buttler (134.56) and Heinrich Klaasen (131.18) have better strike rates than Iyer's 126.58.

Klaasen, Maxwell and Buttler all have 120-plus strike rates against away-spin (legspin and left-arm orthodox) as well, while Iyer has only gone at 90.95 against that type of bowling, but this only illustrates that he plays a different role to those three in ODIs. At No. 4, Iyer isn't required to go after every bowler he comes up against; his role usually requires him to spend time at the crease while going at around a run a ball, and it's vital for him to pick and choose who he takes chances against.

Against spin in ODIs, he bats in much the same way he's done in Test cricket: much like many of his ODI innings, his 105 and 65 against New Zealand on debut in Kanpur, his 92 and 67 against Sri Lanka on a square turner in Bengaluru, and his 87 and 29* in a tense, low-scoring win over Bangladesh in Dhaka were products of calculated aggression against spin.

Rahul Dravid, whose first game as India coach coincided with Iyer's Test debut, made note of the Kanpur and Dhaka knocks when he spoke of the qualities Iyer brings to India's ODI line-up, on the eve of their match against Netherlands in Bengaluru.

"He brings temperament," Dravid said. "I think one of the things Shreyas has shown us right from the time that I have seen him [play for] India A, he came and played India A when I was coaching those days, and I think one of the things that's really stood out about him is his temperament, the way he handles success, failure. You just look at even some of his knocks under pressure, how he's able to actually bring the best out of himself under those pressure situations.

"You can go on about, everyone will have areas that they need to work on and need to improve […] there's no complete batsman who can say that I know everything or I'm very good at everything, you're always going to have areas to improve. But at the end of the day, you have to be judged by the results you produce. And the runs you score and when you score them. And I think with Shreyas, [that's] one of the things that does stand out.

"Look at some of his Test innings, look at how he started his Test debut. Look at some of the critical knocks he's played for us. Even in the two years that I've been here, I mean, Bangladesh, you know that game, under extreme pressure, who's the guy who stands up? Ash [R Ashwin] and Shreyas, guys like that with incredible temperament, incredible strength of mind, and I think that's what has held him in really good stead. He's terrific temperamentally. So when someone like him does well, you know he's going to make big contributions. It may not always work out, but when it does, you know someone like him is going to make a big play."

There's no doubt that Iyer can get out to the short ball, that he can occasionally be late on the pull, get cramped for room, and miscue it. Unfortunately for him, the watching world views discomfort against the short ball through a much less forgiving lens - for all kinds of socio-cultural reasons that have little to do with cricket - than it does a weakness outside off stump or a tendency to play around the front pad and get lbw.

Those who play and coach at the top level, though, know that all batters have weaknesses, and that no technique is watertight. It's the overall package that matters, and India have long known they have a mighty fine one in Iyer.