Kolkata Knight Riders seem to have discovered a gem in Venkatesh Iyer ever since Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 has resumed in the UAE. Iyer, who opened the batting with Shubman Gill for KKR, has been sensational with the bat but on Tuesday (September 28) after it was his medium-pace bowling which caught Delhi Capitals on the hop in Sharjah.
On a sluggish and slow surface in Sharjah, Iyer changed his pace brilliantly and maintained great control to pick up two crucial wickets of Shimron Hetmeyer (4) and Axar Patel (0) while giving away 29 runs in fours. Iyer’s brilliant bowling coupled with Sunil Narine’s 2/18 and Lockie Ferguson’s 2/10 restricted the Capitals to just 127/9 bowling first.
Social media could keep calm after watching Iyer in action with the ball. “Venkatesh Iyer is the golden boy of #KKR in #IPL2021 @KKRiders,” one fan tweeted.
Venkatesh Iyer is the golden boy of #KKR in #IPL2021@KKRiders pic.twitter.com/JuWZBDsV25
— Zaid Khan (@Zaidkhan636041) September 28, 2021
Another user said, “Venkatesh Iyer should replace Hardik Pandya in #t20worldcup2021 #IPL2021 #KKRvsDC #KKR”.
Venkatesh Iyer should replace Hardik Pandya in #t20worldcup2021#IPL2021 #KKRvsDC #KKR
— Arijit Babu (@_ArijitBabu_) September 28, 2021
Another user said that Venkatesh Iyer performed at the expense of Delhi Capitals’ Shreyas Iyer. “Shreyas iyer nai to Venkatesh Iyer hi sahi…Iyer Shines”.
Shreyas iyer nai to Venkatesh Iyer hi sahi...
Iyer Shines.
— All in One (@mayankm94847123) September 28, 2021
Iyer has 21 wickets to his name for Madhya Pradesh from 41 T20 games and has also picked up 10 wickets in 50-over domestic matches. Iyer enrolled for a B.Com degree, alongside a chartered accountancy degree. He even topped in the CA intermediate examinations in 2016, when he had a decision to make. Attempting the CA finals would mean walking away from cricket, or at least putting his career on hold.
He had already made his T20 and 50-overs debuts for the Madhya Pradesh senior team and was captain of the state’s Under-23 team by then. A first-class debut was just around the corner, and he let his instincts take over.
The Capitals struggled throughout their innings with Steve Smith and Rishabh Pant top-scoring with 39 each. However, neither of the DC batsmen could break KKR’s control over the innings. For the first time in an IPL match in Sharjah, there was not even a single six in the innings.
Smith took 34 balls to score 39 while skipper Pant took 36 balls to score the same amount of runs.
