Even top footballers are not picked for World Cup: Shreyas Iyer on pain of rejection

Cricketer Shreyas Iyer looks to football to deal with the pain of rejection, saying some of its better players' failure to make the FIFA World Cup despite shining for their clubs help him put things in perspective.

"It's not just cricket but even football and other sports, if you see, there also we find breakdowns (heartbreaks). You can find a lot of top footballers not being selected for World Cup despite performing for their clubs. All these small, small things matter and helped me focus on what I am doing at the present," Iyer said on Saturday.

The realisation that he is not the only one suffering has helped the Mumbai batsman to focus only on the process of scoring runs.

The immensely talented Iyer has had a start-stop international career, having played six ODIs and six T20 Internationals till date.

So how did this change come about?