‘Leaving the ball bores me,' says Shreyas Iyer

India's Test batsman Shreyas Iyer, who was not considered for the ongoing three-match T20I series against Afghanistan, and was asked to play Mumbai's Ranji Trophy game against Andhra Pradesh at the Mumbai Cricket Association's Bandra-Kurla Complex ground here, has made it clear that he will play attacking cricket whatever the format.

Shreyas Iyer, who was playing a Ranji Trophy match five years, scored a run-a-ball 48 at No.5 with the help of seven fours in the first innings before Mumbai went on to beat Andhra Pradesh by 10 wickets in the Elite Group ‘B' tie on Monday. He will be joining Rohit Sharma & Co for the five-Test series against England, starting on January 25 at Hyderabad.

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"I'm going to play attacking [cricket] irrespective of the situation. That's why even when they [Andhra] bowled negative or defensive at the start, you want to score runs to take your team through to a certain point, so that was my mindset and I stuck with it," Iyer said after Mumbai's convincing win.

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He added that he enjoyed the short stuff dished out by the Andhra bowlers, but at the same time, felt bored whenever he had to leave the ball. "They started with short balls and I was able to get them away for boundaries. I got a lot of runs off them [short balls]. But when they bowled negative, I had no option but to leave the ball. Leaving the ball does bore me because I'd rather play my strokes," added Iyer, 29, who has represented the country in 12 Tests, 59 ODIs and 51 T20Is.

Speaking about the upcoming Test series against England, Iyer felt that three days should be enough to get a result as he expects the series to be played on turning pitches. "It [MCA-BKC pitch] was not a turning track. I'm assuming that we'd be getting turning wickets against England. Personally, I wanted to test my match fitness. After my [back] injury, it has been tough for me to stick around on the field for long, so this was great practice for me. To be honest, I just have to think about the three days. If you saw our last two Test matches against South Africa, they finished in three-days," he concluded.