Venkatesh Iyer – The Rising All-Rounder
Few would have heard the name of Venkatesh Iyer before the start of the UAE edition of the Indian T20 League last year. Even the most loyal of the Kolkata team fans wouldn’t have given their team a chance of reaching the play-offs before the resumption of the tournament later in the year following the Covid-19 outbreak. Baking largely on the performances of newcomer Iyer and old guns Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana, the Kolkata team made the impossible possible by going all the way to the final before falling short of eventual champions Chennai. He finished the season with 370 runs from 10 matches at an impressive average of 41.11 and a strike rate of 128.47. His season was studded with 4 half centuries.
The Indian T20 League has earned a reputation for being one of the biggest platforms for budding cricketers. Iyer’s meteoric rise meant that one such chapter was being added to that book. After he was asked to stay back in the UAE to be a net bowler for the batters of the Indian team for the 2021 T20 World Cup, Iyer finally got his break in the T20 home series against New Zealand in November. The 27-year-old has since featured in 2 ODIs and 3 T20Is, but is yet to grab the headlines with any of his performances.
The additional advantage Iyer brings to the plate is his ability to bowl. He can operate as the fifth bowler and can give his skippers the opportunity of playing an extra batter. And who is not aware of the importance of all-rounders in T20 cricket?
The biggest advantage of having Iyer in the team is that he has the ability to hit the ball big and has the right kind of temperament to play a big innings. Therefore, his rise would bode well for the country’s future. It was not without reason that the Kolkata team decided to retain Iyer and not some of the well-known names such as Gill and Morgan. They will now hope that the left-handed batter will be able to prove the doubters wrong and end the 2022 season on a high.
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Venkatesh Iyer’s Personal Details
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- Name
- :
- Venkatesh Rajasekaran Iyer
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- Date of Birth
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- 25th December 1994
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- Birthplace
- :
- Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
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- Height
- :
- 6′1″
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- Playing Role
- :
- All-rounder
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- Batting Style
- :
- Left-handed batter
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- Bowling Style
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- Right-arm medium-fast
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- Current Team
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- India National Cricket Team, Kolkata team
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- Jersey Number
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- 25
Venkatesh Iyer Current Rankings
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T20 --
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ODI --
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Test --
Venkatesh Iyer Career Summary
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- Format
- M
- Inn
- Runs
- HS
- Avg
- SR
- 100s
- 50
- W
- Bowling Average
- Bowling SR
-
- ODI
- 2
- 2
- 24
- 22 vs SA
- 12.00
- 60.00
- 0
- 0
- 0
- --
- --
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- T20l
- 9
- 7
- 133
- 35* vs WI
- 33.25
- 164.10
- 0
- 0
- 5
- 15.00
- 11
Venkatesh Iyer - Key Skills and Strengths
Venkatesh Iyer is an aggressive all-rounder who has the ability to open the innings both as a batter and a bowler. He brings aggression to the plate and is not shy of playing the ball in the air. While opening the batting, he can increase the scoring rate of the side, thus easing the pressure on the others coming in behind him. Flexibility has been Iyer’s biggest strength though, with the player being used in the middle order by the Indian cricket team in the T20s. He has fared well there, with his highest score coming against the West Indies only recently.
Iyer has been handed limited opportunities in bowling so far, notching up his best figures of 2/23 only recently against the West Indies. He also has a 12.3 strike rate to go with it. The left-handed batter makes good use of the bottom hand and can hit the ball long standing on the pitch.
Venkatesh Iyer Awards and Achievements
Being newcomer to the international scene, Iyer is due big things in the future though nothing has come his way yet. His domestic appearances have spoken a lot about him so far though. The 27-year-old made 24 List-A appearances scoring 849 runs and took 10 wickets in the process. His first List-A appearance came in 2015 where he represented Madhya Pradesh. He scored 198 runs in 146 balls, thus breaking David Warner’s record of scoring the highest individual run there.
Venkatesh Iyer’s Indian T20 League Journey
Iyer has earned all his accolades while playing for the Kolkata team in the Indian T20 League. He has gone on to become a mainstay of their batting and was one of the two Indian players to be retained before the auctions, the other being Varun Chakravarthy. Being considered for the later stages of the tournament last year, Iyer proved his mettle by finishing the edition with 370 runs from just 10 matches and ending up 16th in the list of highest run scorers. He was in fact the only player to have scored such a significant number of runs in a limited number of games. The team will hope to have him in a similar kind of form this season too.
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- Format
- M
- Runs
- HS
- Avg
- SR
- 100
- 50
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- Indian T20 League
- 25
- 672
- 83* vs Gujarat
- 29.22
- 126.32
- 0
- 6
Venkatesh Iyer: FAQs
Iyer is an MBA graduate, who let go of a high-profile job to focus on his passion— cricket.
Iyer once admitted that he had decided to bat left-handed and bowl right-handed after watching Sourav Ganguly while growing up.
Iyer is an admirer of Akshay Kumar and Madhuri Dixit.
No, Venkatesh Iyer isn’t married yet.