Venkatesh Iyer

Iyer is an Indian cricketer who plays for Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.

Domestic Career:

• Twenty20 debut: against Railways cricket team at Holkar Stadium in March 2015 List A debut: against Saurashtra cricket team at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in December 2015
• First class debut: for Madhya Pradesh in the 2018 – 2019 Ranji Trophy on 6 December 2018
• Iyer made his Twenty20 debut against Railways cricket team at Holkar Stadium in March 2015 and his List A debut against Saurashtra cricket team at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in December of the same year, while he was pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
• After passing the CA Intermediate examinations, he decided to drop out and enrol himself in an MBA course in finance to allow him to pursue cricket further.
• He made his first-class debut for Madhya Pradesh in the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy on 6 December 2018. Iyer finished as Madhya Pradesh’s top scorer in the 2021-22 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 155 runs at an average of 51.66.
• He continued his form in the 2021-22 Vijay Hazare Trophy (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.

IPL Career:

• IPL debut: on 20 September 2021 against Royal Challengers Bangalore

International Career:

• T20I debut: on 17 November 2021, for India against New Zealand

He made his international bowling debut in the final match of this series, returning figures of 3-0-12-1.

Major Achievements:

• In the 2021 – 2022 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he was the first batsman to score a score of 150 or more whilst batting at number six or lower.
• On 23 September 2021, he scored his maiden IPL fifty against Mumbai Indians.
• On 16 April 2023, Iyer scored his maiden IPL Century against Mumbai Indians scoring 104 runs in 51 balls. He became the 2nd Batter to score a century for KKR after Brendon McCullum did in the first match of IPL 2008, i.e. 15 years ago. But his century went in vain as KKR was defeated by Mumbai Indians.
• Till 20 April 2023, Iyer was the 4th highest scorer in terms of runs in IPL 2023 trailing behind Faf du Plessis, David Warner, Virat Kohli and Jos Buttler. He scored 234 runs in 6 innings at an average of 39 and a strike rate of 168.34.