Fearless, unyielding, and ruthless were the traits Venkatesh Iyer showcased last night as he took the game away from Mumbai Indians (MI) right from the start.Whether it was Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Jaspreet Bumrah, or Rahul Chahar, he did not let them settle as he slammed them all across the field like he has been doing it for years.
This new Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) sensation hit a scorching 53 off just 30 balls, including four fours and three sixes, in only his second IPL encounter.In fact, he appeared rock-solid in his debut match as well, which he played against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) where he remained not out on 41 chasing a small target.
Iyer, a Madhya Pradesh native, made his T20 debut against the Railways cricket team in his hometown of Indore in 2015. Three years after making his Ranji Trophy debut in the 2018-19 season. The 26-year-old grabbed eyeballs with his performance in in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2020/2021 with 227 runs from five innings at an average of 75.66 and strike rate of 149.34. As a result, KKR roped him in the 2021 IPL auction.
He is a CA dropout who has undertaken an MBA programme in order to continue his cricket career. Interestingly, he was a right-handed batsman before the magic of Bengal Tiger and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly's batting encouraged him to switch to a left-handed batting style.
The youngster has played a major role in a huge turn of fortunes for KKR in the second leg of the IPL 2021. The team was struggling at the bottom half of the table, but Morgan's have looked a different team in the UAE leg.Their top order batsmen have looked courageous in their first two encounters following the resumption, indicating that they now have the freedom to express themselves from the first ball.And thus far, this tactic has paid off for KKR, as they climbed to fourth place in the IPL 2021 points table following last night's convincing win.
