India, Feb. 6 -- India batter Shreyas Iyer, on Thursday, shockingly revealed in a post-match chat with broadcasters that he was not slated to play in the team's opening game of the three-match series against England in Nagpur, and only got the opportunity after Virat Kohli got injured.

Iyer has been India's mainstay No. 4 in the ODI format for the past couple of years, having long ended the conundrum that had troubled the team during the 2019 World Cup. In fact, in the 2023 edition of the 50-over event, he was India's second-highest run-getter with 530 runs at 66.25, with a strike rate of 113.24, laced with two centuries and three fifties. He was India's best-ever No. 4 in a World Cup edition. And he proved it yet again on Thursday when ...