Before the start of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) Venkatesh Iyer was just another name in the Indian cricket fraternity. But a few months since then, he has well and truly made a name for himself. Iyer didn’t play in the first half of the 2021 IPL when the tournament took place in India, […]
Before the start of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) Venkatesh Iyer was just another name in the Indian cricket fraternity. But a few months since then, he has well and truly made a name for himself. Iyer didn’t play in the first half of the 2021 IPL when the tournament took place in India, but he showed his class in the tournament’s second leg in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Iyer opened the batting and changed the face of the Knights’ batting with his attacking stroke play. He took the attack to the bowlers from the very first game he played and showed the damage he can do at the top of the order. Iyer packed a punch in his stroke and helped the Men in Gold and Purple take advantage of the first six overs.
In the meantime, a video of one of Iyer’s strokes have been doing the rounds on social media. KKR’s official Instagram handle posted a clip where Iyer can be seen playing the reverse scoop off Australian pacer Ben Cutting.
The shot was pretty reminiscent of the one Rishabh Pant played against Jofra Archer and James Anderson last year against England. Cutting was a tad bemused after Iyer played the audacious shot over the third man region.
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Iyer has come up the ranks in the last few months. After his stupendous show in the IPL, Iyer got his maiden national call-up in the T20I series against New Zealand. Although he couldn’t put in a substantial performance, Rohit Sharma, India’s skipper, backed him to come good in upcoming assignments.
Back in January, Iyer also made his ODI debut against South Africa and played two games. He is now set to take part in the limited-overs series against Kieron Pollard’s West Indies from Sunday, February 6. Iyer also did well for his domestic team Madhya Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.
As far as the IPL is concerned, Iyer is one of the players KKR retained ahead of the mega auction, which is scheduled to take place in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13.
The other three players are Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. Iyer is also set to open the batting with Rohit Sharma in the West Indies ODIs after Shikhar Dhawan tested COVID-19 positive.
