Shreyas Iyer is fidgety at the crease, almost Steve Smith-like. He keeps swinging the bat up and down against pacers, and walks across the stumps against the spinners. He often adopts different stances too. It gives his batting a touch of restlessness. But behind that exterior disquiet, works a steady, calculative brain focused on finding run-making ways, and it will be India's biggest asset going into the Champions Trophy. India will have varied threats to negate in the ICC showpiece's league stages spin from Bangladesh and New Zealand and pace from Pakistan. In No. 4 Shreyas, India has the best possible candidate for that job. Let's go through how the 30-year-old fares against spin in the ODIs, and he will face left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner and off-spinner Michael Bracewell while playing against New Zealand. The Kiwis spin twins had applied breaks on Pakistan batters in the middle passage, where Shreyas too will bat, during the tri-series final at Karachi on Friday. The Mumbai man will also have to negate a set of slow bowlers from Bangladesh like veteran left-arm spinner Mahmudullah.

Shreyas has made 432 runs against left-arm variety from 29 innings at a stunning average of 144 and his control percentage is 88.4%. He has been dismissed three times by left-arm spinners. The numbers are less spectacular against off-spinners but in 25 innings he has made 290 runs against that iteration at an average of 72.5 but strikes at 118 as against 97 against the southpaws. His control against off-spinners touches 90.2%, but he was dismissed four times by them. His most productive phase against spin is between overs 21 and 30, where he has made 363 runs at an average of 90.8 and the tweakers have managed to jettison him 14 times across 65 ODIs. Shreyas has not played much against Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, but has taken 29 runs out of them in two matches at an average of 50. But overall, the right-hander has 1531 runs against quick bowlers in ODIs, at an average of 40 and at a strike-rate of 101.7. He often gets trolled for his inability to deal with snorters, but Shreyas has made some improvements in that department since 2022.