Venkatesh Iyer, the all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh has been picked by Kolkata Knight Riders for the 2021 edition of IPL. Venkatesh was born on 25th December 1994 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
Playing style
Venkatesh Iyer is a left-hand batsman. He is already a tall person and his upright stance at the crease makes him a giant with the bat. The upright stance helps him to watch the ball more closely from the bowler’s hand. He is a typical left-hand batsman with the typical left-hand batsman’s elegance. He is an excellent driver and cutter of the ball and can pull and hook as well if needed.
Venkatesh is a right-arm medium pacer who can chip wickets at the lower economy.
Debut in Domestic T-20
The grind in U-16 games finally paid off as he made his domestic debut on 25th March 2015 for Madhya Pradesh. He bagged one wicket on debut conceding just 21 runs. He didn’t get an opportunity to bat.
On 11th December 2015, he made his List A debut. He could bat this time, but only scored 16 runs. The one over from him cost 8 runs to his side.
A strange First-Class debut
It took 3 long years to get the Madhya Pradesh cap for First-Class cricket. The day was 6th December 2018. On his T-20 debut, he could bowl, but not bat. This time, in a longer format, he would have dreamt of some nice batting on debut, but unluckily that didn’t happen. Madhya Pradesh batsmen scored 562/4 dec in the first innings and his chance to bat never came. Strange things do happen in cricket.
Productive 2020-21 season for Venkatesh Iyer
The breakthrough series was when he scored 227 runs in just 5 matches of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2020-21. He finished with an average of over 75 in the tournament. Finally, he got a chance to bat and he pounced on the opportunity.
In the same season, in Vijay Hazare Trophy he missed the double hundred by just 2 runs. The knock of 198 helped Madhya Pradesh to post a massive score of 402//3 on the board.
Also Read: Virendra Sehwag’s Six Unbreakable Cricket World Records
IPL Career of Venkatesh Iyer
Venkatesh’s 2020-21 domestic season has been studded with such wonderful batting performances. KKR has bought him for 20 Lakhs and both the parties would be looking forward to having a great second half of IPL 2021.
Let’s look at Venkatesh through Stats & numbers
Batting
| First Class | List A | T20 | |
| Matches | 10 | 24 | 38 |
| Innings | 15 | 22 | 32 |
| Runs | 545 | 849 | 724 |
| Best | 93 | 198 | 88* |
| Average | 36.33 | 47.16 | 36.2 |
| Strike Rate | 54.33 | 98.72 | 137.64 |
| 100s | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 50s | 6 | 3 | 2 |
Bowling
| FC | List A | T20 | |
| Matches | 10 | 24 | 38 |
| Innings | 16 | 15 | 29 |
| Runs | 340 | 315 | 541 |
| Wickets | 7 | 10 | 21 |
| Best in Innings | 2/22 | 2/12 | 2/10 |
| Best in Match | 3/46 | 2/12 | 2/10 |
| Average | 48.57 | 31.5 | 25.76 |
| Economy | 2.59 | 5.38 | 6.98 |
| Strike Rate | 112.2 | 35.1 | 22.1 |
| 5-fer | 0 | – | 0 |
| 10-fer | – | 0 | – |
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