Who is Venkatesh Iyer? Meet KKR’s new all-rounder

Venkatesh Rajasekaran Iyer was once simply 19 when he broke into the Madhya Pradesh facet for the primary time. The teenager didn’t get a possibility to bat in his debut sport in opposition to Railways, however scalped the wicket of seasoned Mahesh Rawat and made his little contribution in opposition to Madhya Pradesh’s four-run win within the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy fixture in 2015.

Over the past six years, Iyer has featured in 10 top notch, 24 Checklist A and 39 T20 fixtures for Madhya Pradesh – however the truncated 2020-21 season was once in all probability his perfect. That includes within the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Iyer accrued 227 runs in 5 innings, at a mean of 75.66.

He saved the momentum going with a 198 in opposition to Punjab in a Vijay Hazare Trophy fixture, thus piling up 273 runs in 5 video games. He additionally bagged 3 wickets within the match.

Clearly, his constant performances did not move disregarded. The scouting crew of KKR had saved an eye fixed at the teenager from Indore and forward of this 12 months’s public sale in February, he was once referred to as for a tribulation in Mumbai. “We preferred what we noticed of him. He’s a batsman, who can bat on the best of the order and he used to play decrease down the order for his crew. So, that is an added benefit and he additionally bowls slightly of medium tempo,” KKR analyst AR Srikkanth had advised the crew website online quickly after the public sale.

“He’s any individual who is aware of his sport neatly and has a mature head on his shoulders. So, we concept any individual like him would upload a large number of worth on the subject of having intensity within the Indian contingent.”

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Whilst Iyer needed to heat the bench within the first leg, he made his debut within the Indian Premier League on Monday. Donning the Kolkata Knight Riders colors in opposition to a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore, the 26-year-old from Indore opened the innings for the Knights and got here up with an unbeaten 41.

Chasing a complete of 93, the hole pair of Iyer and Shubman Gill completed issues off in simply 10 overs, with the previous keeping up a strike price of 151.85.

Whilst this is able to simply be a starting for the younger gun, the cricketing fraternity is already inspired with him. The truth that he appeared calm and composed whilst dealing with the likes of Mohammad Siraj and Kyle Jamieson has stuck the eye of former India world Irfan Pathan and Manoj Tiwary.

Whilst Pathan loved his batting taste, Tiwary believed that if nurtured neatly, Iyer has the possible to be a real fast-bowling all-rounder for India like Hardik Pandya.

However that’s for later. For now, Iyer would hope to make each and every alternative rely and take a look at to be informed a factor or two from his senior team-mates at KKR.

From being a brilliant scholar to changing into the U-23 captain for Madhya Pradesh, laborious paintings has been the important thing to good fortune for Iyer and as he in spite of everything enjoys his second within the giant league, this Rajinikanth fan hopes to ‘flow’.