Shreyas Iyer gave an update on his wrist injury after Punjab Kings’ win over Gujarat Titans and praised debutant Cooper Connolly for his knock that helped the team complete the chase despite a late collapse.Connolly scored an unbeaten 72 off 44 balls to guide Punjab Kings to a three-wicket win in their IPL opener at Mullanpur.The injury scare happened during the chase of 163. In the 12th over, Iyer was at the non-striker’s end when Connolly hit a shot off Rashid Khan. Iyer did not get time to move away and the ball struck his wrist. He fell to the ground in pain, drawing concern from the team management and dugout.Head coach Ricky Ponting and the support staff watched closely as the physio attended to Iyer. He later returned to bat but was dismissed off the next ball he faced.Speaking after the match, Iyer said, “All I can say about the hand is that it is nice, same as it was before, I do not want to jinx anything. I just want to stay positive, and hopefully everything comes all right,” Iyer said.He also spoke about Connolly’s innings. “Cooper has got a great mindset and hope he continues his form. I have seen him play for Australia. Some of the shots he played were surreal to watch, especially the one off Rashid.”Iyer said the team stayed calm after losing wickets in quick succession. “I was focused on my hand inside, icing it, and suddenly we lost two wickets back to back; these things happen in the IPL. You have to stay composed. Cooper was there, he was composed and calm,” he said.He also praised Vijaykumar Vyshak, who took 3/34, and Yuzvendra Chahal, who picked up 2/28, as Punjab Kings restricted Gujarat Titans to 162/6. Shubman Gill (39) and Jos Buttler (38) were the main contributors for Gujarat.“Vyshak is carrying forward the form he performed in the last season, he is a big match player,” Iyer said.Connolly, who was named Player of the Match, said he was happy with his first IPL outing. “looking forward to getting the experience of playing with some world-class players”.“To put on a show tonight was nice. But, it is a team performance; we played as a team tonight, and that’s all we speak about. It is just a bit of a refresh. I had a couple of weeks at home (after the T20 World Cup), just a refresh and reset, spend some time with family and friends. And that was probably the point where I changed, and it was just like, yeah, okay, I am just gonna reset, and I am gonna go into the IPL fresh,” he added.
