Shreyas Iyer Praises VVS Laxman For His Mentorship After Zimbabwe Triumph

Shreyas Iyer found VVS Laxman's mentorship inspiring, while Laxman marvelled at the young batter's infectious confidence as India's T20 captain and its interim head coach applauded each other's role in the 3-0 sweep of Zimbabwe in Harare.

A relatively new-look India, which did not have several regular stars such as Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, hammered the home team and comfortably clinched the series, closing it with a 35-run win in the third and final T20I on Sunday.

In a dressing room video released by BCCI, Laxman spoke at length about Iyer's tough mindset.

"I would like to specially congratulate Shreyas because he had a rough start to his captaincy career but the way he came back, right from the first day when he joined us one day before the first game, he was very optimistic," Laxman said referring to the 0-4 loss to England earlier this month, which was Iyer's first as India's T20 captain.

"It's a new group of players. We know that only four or five of those who were there in England joined us on this tour. But he was so confident and a lot of credit for this victory should be given to the captain, the way he encouraged each one of you," he added.

Iyer took the opportunity to thank Laxman, who filled in for regular head coach Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir took a break after the gruelling tour of the UK and will be back for the Test tour of Sri Lanka in August.

"I think we were flawless, honestly speaking, throughout the series barring the catches that we dropped. It was a phenomenal effort by everyone in the team, including the support staff.

"Thank you VVS sir for motivating us and inspiring us. Each and every day when we stepped onto the field, I think everything that you mentioned was apt and we could relate to it. So, thank you so much," he said.

Laxman is the head of the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru and serves as interim coach on short tours as and when required.