Venkatesh Iyer was considered one of the interesting prospects, considering his bit-hitting abilities. He shot into prominence during his stint at the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise in the Indian Premier League.
However, he failed to take his batting to the next step in intensity in the last edition of the IPL. Having played 12 IPL games, he could essay just 182 runs, which is pretty low considering a player of his caliber.
The reason why he couldn’t bring the best out of himself was the fact that he was asked to operate at a different role, something in which he didn’t excel as a player.
Kolkata Knight Riders drop Venkatesh Iyer from their playing XI
Just a few days ago, all ten franchises submitted a list of retained and released players. While the teams picked their favorite players, they had to take some bold decisions by releasing the underperforming players.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders dropped Venkatesh Iyer from their playing XI for his poor form. However, Iyer must be feeling really gutted with himself considering that he was asked to play a different role.
Earlier, he was performing so well for the team, and in fact, he opened the innings for the franchise. Moreover, he also got picked as a finisher but sadly, dropped based on his performance in the last season.
Former Indian cricketer and current cricket analyst Aakash Chopra took to his Twitter handle and cited that KKR might have made a big mistake in judging Venkatesh Iyer too quickly.
He felt that it is not to judge a player after failing in the IPL while operating in a different role. Iyer was retained by the two-time IPL champions for a staggering sum of INR 8 crore at the IPL 2022 mega auction which took place in Bengaluru.
Check out the tweet below:-
An example of picking players based on IPL performances & then asking them to perform a different role…and then drop them completely after failing in the IPL (while playing a different role). Meet Ventakesh Iyer. Opened for KKR. Got picked as a finisher…and then dropped!!!
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) November 18, 2022
