‘Anyone else wouldn’t have risked it’: Shreyas Iyer boundary catch despite shoulder injury leaves all amazed

MUMBAI: Like last year, Shreyas Iyer is leaving everyone charmed with his smooth, flawless, and graceful batting in the IPL, apart from his inspirational captaincy while leading Punjab Kings to the top of the table in the league stage of IPL-2025.However, it is the Punjab Kings captain’s stunning fielding effort on the boundary to dismiss Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday night which has had everyone going ga-ga over him, and left even the greats of the game in awe of his catching ability.Iyer's moment of magic arrived in the 18th over of the match, when Pandya looked to launch Marco Jansen into the stands, and the ball soared over long-on.

Fielding at long off, Iyer sprinted across, judged the trajectory of the ball, leaped backward as he was going beyond the boundary, and tossed the ball back to his teammate Xavier Barlett, even as he lost his balance, all within a split second, to complete a "team catch.

"In a moment which has gone viral since then, the 31-year-old Mumbaikar's brilliant effort left Rohit Sharma and India's T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, who was perhaps reminded of his own brilliant catch to dismiss David Miller in the 2024 T20 World Cup final at Barbados, staring in disbelief while watching it all unfold from the nearby MI dugout.

Impressed by Iyer's relay catch, Jonty Rhodes—perhaps the greatest fielder the game has ever seen—reflected on how fielding standards have transformed in modern cricket. Watching @ShreyasIyer15 perform that acrobatic fielding to assist in taking the “team catch” made me appreciate how fielding has evolved since my retirement. For a long time, I felt like the “father of fielding”, but watching these modern athletes with their timing and awareness on the boundary line makes me feel like the “grandfather of fielding”!Rhodes’ own career was defined by inner-circle brilliance, but he admitted that watching the likes of Kieron Pollard and Glenn Maxwell reshaped his approach as an MI fielding coach and introduced him to the now-familiar art of airborne saves and relay catches on the boundary."I spent 99% of my career fielding in the inner circle, and when I started working as a fielding coach, there was no focus on the modern-day “hotspots” on the boundaries. It was only when I started working with @mipaltan and saw Kieron Pollard, and then Glenn Maxwell, performing these incredible “airborne saves” on the boundaries that we started focusing not only on taking catches off balls that were already beyond the rope, but even on saving the ball from going for a six and forcing the batters to run only 1 or 2.

With impact players transforming the way batters can continuously attack the bowling, even with the loss of 4-5 wickets, bowlers need to be backed up by their fielders, and Shreyas’ spectacular “catch and release” was a perfect example of that. But let’s face it; when your head coach is @RickyPonting, one of the greatest fielders in the game, it should not come as a great surprise to see such incredible feats on the field!”In a social media post, Tendulkar, who has been a part of international cricket more than anyone else and has been associated with the IPL from the first season, explained why Iyer's effort is one of the best catches he has ever seen.According to Tendulkar, Iyer's awareness made the catch special. "He had to judge the speed of the ball, the height, where the boundary rope was, how close he was to stepping on it, and get his jump absolutely perfect," Tendulkar said. Tendulkar further explained that Iyer then had to release the ball and pass it to a teammate while still in the air. "Then, while still in the air, he caught the ball and released it to a teammate before landing, all the while knowing exactly where that fielder was positioned.

To process all of that in a split second takes unbelievable awareness, timing, fitness, and composure," Tendulkar added.Iyer's brilliant catch at Wankhede also showed how much his fitness has improved from the point where he suffered a life-threatening spleen injury while going for a difficult catch during the third ODI in Sydney in Oct last year. "Absolutely! What a fabulous catch. What an amazing athlete. What an inspirational captain.

And an even better human being," famous Mumbai-based orthopedic surgeon Dr Dinshaw Pardiwalla, who looked after Iyer’s treatment, told TOI on Saturday."It has been a difficult journey for Iyer from the point of that life-threatening injury till this point, where he is pulling off such an acrobatic catch. His rehab post the injury was slow and painful. In the initial days of his rehab, Shreyas was asked to avoid gymming for a month.

The medical team at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence initially gave him a green signal for only red-ball cricket, but he insisted on playing white-ball cricket.

And then, while he's the vice-captain of India's ODI team, he has been snubbed from India’s T20 side. That isn't easy on him. In terms of beating the odds, it's truly an inspirational story. It tells you how strong his mindset is," a source close to Iyer told this paper.After pulling off the catch of this IPL season, Iyer chose not to go over the top. He stayed near the boundary, taking it in. The Mumbai batter turned to his ‘home crowd’ and gestured for more noise, almost asking them to recognise what they had just seen. It was a calm and confident gesture.Iyer’s childhood/Mumbai/ex-Delhi Capitals assistant coach and former India batsman Pravin Amre lauded his ‘student’ for showing 100% commitment in the field despite having suffered serious injuries in the past.

"I told him, ‘I enjoyed your celebration.’ You can celebrate like that only after taking a catch like that. Every second was critical in that catch. Why I particularly like that catch is that he knows he has suffered serious back and shoulder injuries in the past.

To take a catch like that after what his body has gone through shows how committed he is in his fielding, and that is something that we’ve drilled into him at Shivaji Park while coaching him from his early years.”“Perhaps anyone else wouldn’t have risked going for that kind of a catch, fearing injury. I mean, we’ve seen how Shreyas has been forced to miss an entire year/season in the past due to his injuries,” hailed Amre.With the bat, Iyer has been on fire. The Punjab Kings captain has scored 203 runs in five matches at an average of 67.66, at a fabulous strike rate of 187.96, including three half-centuries in his last three outings so far in IPL-2026.

Iyer led PBKS to the final in IPL-2025, where they narrowly lost by six runs to Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and this year, he has again captained them to the top of the table—they've won four out of five matches and are yet to lose a game in IPL-2026.Iyer’s sizzling form has helped the Punjab Kings pull off chases with ridiculous ease this season. Against Sunrisers in New Chandigarh, he thrashed 69 not out off just 33 balls, including five sixes and five fours, to help PBKS chase down 220 by the 19th over.

On Wednesday night, he smashed 66 off 35 balls, which included four sixes and five fours, helping PBKS chase down 196 on a canter. Some of the sixes that he struck—there was a pulled six off Jasprit Bumrah too—went into the top tiers of the Wankhede Stadium.

Like before any tournament/series, Iyer trained with Amre to fine-tune his batting.“See, making a quality cricketer is like sculpting a statue, which takes time. Before IPL-2026, he trained with me at Shivaji Park and Cricket Club of India. We worked on his ‘top hand,’ his grip basically. It’s something we had been working on for the past two years. Basically, his top hand used to get loose, so he would lose his shape and get caught in the deep. We ‘firmed’ his grip a bit, and you can see the difference now…the ball is going deep into the stands after he strikes it,” Amre revealed with a chuckle!“I met Ricky (Ponting) and him after the match at Wankhede. Shreyas told me that he’s enjoying his cricket a lot, and Ricky told me he was very happy with him. Even Rohit (Sharma) was very impressed by him. Everyone is saying that the way Shreyas is batting, he should be the captain of India’s T20 team,” Amre praised.“It was due to Shreyas that they reached the 2023 World Cup final. Shreyas may not be a part of India’s T20 team due to various reasons, but he is not giving up, right?” the seasoned coach concluded.