India coach Rahul Dravid described Shreyas Iyer as the backbone of their middle order after the batsman made an unbeaten 128 in Sunday's World Cup victory over the Netherlands to ensure the hosts won all nine of their group stage games.
Iyer followed up his scores of 82 against Sri Lanka and 77 against fellow semi-finalists South Africa with his maiden World Cup hundred in the company of fellow centurion KL Rahul as India scored 410-4 before bowling out the Dutch for 250.
The right-hander's back injury earlier this year had briefly left India without a settled batsman at number four ahead of the World Cup, with the team having already tried a dozen players since Yuvraj Singh's retirement in 2017.
