Venkatesh Iyer (born 25 December 1994) is an Indian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays for

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

domestic cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Domestic career

Iyer made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

debut against Railways cricket team at Holkar Stadium in March 2015 and made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut against Saurashtra cricket team at

Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, also known as the Khandheri Cricket Stadium, is a cricket stadium in Rajkot, India. It is Gujarat's first solar-powered stadium. In 2013, the first international match took place in this stadium. The h ...

in December of the same year, while he was pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce degree. After passing the CA Intermediate examinations, he decided to dropout and enroll himself in a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in finance to allow him to pursue cricket further. He made his first-class debut for Madhya Pradesh in the

2018–19 Ranji Trophy The 2018–19 Ranji Trophy was the 85th season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament that took place in India between November 2018 and February 2019. Vidarbha were the defending champions. The final took place between ...

on 6 December 2018. Iyer finished as Madhya Pradesh's top scorer in the

2021-22 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Increment or incremental may refer to: *Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) *Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming *Incremental computing *Incremental backup, wh ...

with 155 runs at an average of 51.66. He continued his form in the

2021-22 Vijay Hazare Trophy Increment or incremental may refer to: *Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) *Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming *Incremental computing *Incremental backup, wh ...

scoring 379 runs at an average of 63.16 with a strike rate of over 133, batting in the lower middle order. This included two centuries, one of which was a score of 151, which made him the first batsman to score a score of 150 or more whilst batting at number six or lower in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He also took 9 wickets in six matches.

Indian Premier League

In February 2021, Iyer was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL auction ahead of the

2021 Indian Premier League The 2021 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 14, or for sponsorship reasons, Vivo IPL 2021, was the fourteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cric ...

. On 20 September 2021, upon resumption of the IPL in the

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, he made his IPL debut against

Royal Challengers Bangalore Royal Challengers Bangalore (often abbreviated as RCB) are a franchise cricket team based in Bangalore, Karnataka, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was founded in 2008 by United Spirits and named after the company's liquor b ...

. On 23 September 2021, he scored his maiden IPL fifty against

Mumbai Indians Mumbai Indians are a franchise cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League and is the most successful team of the tournament with 5 titles. Founded in 2008, the team is owned by India's biggest conglo ...

. Iyer emerged as a key player for KKR for the rest of the tournament, aiding in their run to the final, by scoring 370 runs at an average of 41 and a strike rate of 129. He was named as player of the match in the second qualifier, after scoring 55 runs and he followed this up with another half century in the final. Alongside his opening partner

Shubman Gill Shubman Gill (born 8 September 1999) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for Punjab in domestic cricket as a right-handed opening batsman. He was the vice-captain of the India U-19 team for 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He got awar ...

, he put on an opening stand of 91, which proved to be in vain as KKR lost the match.

International career

He was asked to stay back in

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to be a net bowler in India's

2021 ICC T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventua ...

squad. In November 2021, he was named in India's

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) squad for their series against New Zealand. He made his T20I debut on 17 November 2021, for India against

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. He made his international bowling debut in the final match of this series, returning figures of 3-0-12-1. In December 2021, he was named in India's

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) squad for their series against South Africa. He made his ODI debut on 19 January 2022, for India against

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. In January 2022, he was named in India's T20I squad for their series against the West Indies, where he played all three matches, playing a finishing role in the lower middle order scoring his runs at a strike rate of 179.24. He also picked up two wickets in the series. In June 2022, Iyer was named in India's squad for their T20I series against Ireland.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iyer, Venkatesh 1994 births Living people Indian cricketers India One Day International cricketers India Twenty20 International cricketers Madhya Pradesh cricketers Cricketers from Indore Kolkata Knight Riders cricketers