Venkatesh Iyer

Venkatesh Rajasekaran Iyer, popularly known as Venkatesh Iyer is an Indian Cricketer born on 25th December 1994 in the city of Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He is an ambidextrous all-rounder who bats left-handed and bowls right-arm medium pace.

Career

Domestic Career

Venkatesh Iyer played at the U-16 level for his state before receiving a place in the Madhya Pradesh senior team. He received his maiden domestic cap at the senior level in a T20 match against Railways on March 25, 2015. Venkatesh returned with figures of 1/21 on T20 debut.

Later that year, Iyer gained a place in the Madhya Pradesh senior team’s List-A squad. He received his maiden List-A cap against Saurashtra at Rajkot on December 11, 2015. Venkatesh bowled only one over in that game, where he conceded eight runs. He got an opportunity to bat at number three but could only score 16 runs.

After three years, Venkatesh Iyer made his first-class debut. He played against Hyderabad on December 6, 2018, picking up one wicket. Since the Madhya Pradesh batsmen dominated the proceedings in the first innings and the team declared at 562/4, Venkatesh did not get a chance to bat. His team won the game by an innings and 253 runs.

Speaking of his numbers in first-class cricket, Venkatesh has played ten matches, scoring 545 runs at an average of 36.33. His wicket tally is at seven wickets, with his best figures in an innings being 2/22.

Venkatesh Iyer has played 24 List-A matches for Madhya Pradesh, taking 10 wickets and aggregating 849. Meanwhile, in T20 cricket, his batting aggregate is 724 runs at a strike rate of 137.64. He has 21 T20 wickets to his name and his economy rate in this format is 6.98.

IPL Career

Venkatesh Iyer has not played a single match in the Indian Premier League so far. However, he could make his debut for the Kolkata Knight Riders Team in the IPL 2021 edition of the league. KKR signed him at his base price of INR 20 lakh at the auction.

Background

Hailing from Indore, Venkatesh Iyer stunned the cricket fans with a 198-run knock against the Punjab cricket team in the 2020/21 Vijay Hazare Trophy. He opened the innings for his team and scored 198 runs off 146 deliveries to guide Madhya Pradesh to 402/3 in 50 overs. He later took 2/24 with the ball. Apart from that, he had scored 87* against Goa and 88* vs. Saurashtra in the 2020/21 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Hence, Iyer could be a game-changer for his team in the IPL.