Visualisation the key to Iyer's resurgence

A standout debut first-class season. Big bucks at the IPL auction. Rising star of the IPL. It was turning out to be a fairytale ride for Shreyas Iyer. But then came the India A outings at home against Australia A, South Africa A and Bangladesh A, which put the brakes on Iyer's ride and gave him a reality check.

Not once in his six innings in the four unofficial Tests did Iyer pass 50, getting out twice on 49. But once he did eventually bring up a half-century, against Punjab on the first day, Iyer was at ease. "It was really important for me to cross 50, which happened yesterday only, and I was quite relaxed after that," he said.

Once his primary objective had been achieved, it was all about enjoying himself. Iyer tonked the Punjab bowlers at will to convert his first fifty of the season into his maiden double-hundred in first-class cricket. "I wanted to stay not out throughout, play session by session and not think about big score straightaway. Glad that I could actually execute that."

It wasn't as if Iyer had lost touch during the India A series. Only once in those six innings did he get out early in his innings. In the remaining five knocks, he got starts but failed to capitalise. "What was going wrong was actually I was playing too much shots, erratic shots. Now am playing on the merits, respecting good balls."

During the last month ahead of Mumbai's Ranji season, Iyer worked with his coach Pravin Amre on building an innings. In fact, for a player of Iyer's abilities - someone who can find gaps at will - concentrating for longer periods of time was the key to converting starts into big knocks. For that, he started visualising more often.

"Visualisation is the only thing I added [to my game]," he said. "I imagined that I am going to the ground, I am taking strike, which all bowlers I might be facing. I knew that these are the four bowlers they might be playing, so I visualised accordingly. I didn't visualise that Yuvraj [Singh] would be bowling, that's why I got out to him."

He might have been dismissed by Yuvraj, but a ruffle of the hair from the Punjab captain was a nod to a young career that has risen steadily over the last year.