Venkatesh Iyer Biography | Career Stats, IPL | Records | Family

Venkatesh Iyer Biography: The Madhya Pradesh-born cricketer made his international debut for the India cricket team in November 2021.

The middle-order aggressive batsman who can add runs in the death overs with his boundary hitting skills might replace injured Hardik Pandya who struggles to find his form back.

Check out the full cricket journey of the Indian all-rounder who picks cricket as a career after passing the CA Intermediate examinations.

Venkatesh Iyer Biography – Overview

Venkatesh Iyer Biography – Early Life

• Venkatesh Iyer belongs to a modest background and started his journey at the age of 10 when he joined a cricket club in the hometown of Indore.
• Venkatesh Iyer used to play as wicketkeeper batsman till Under 19 level. He developed an interest in bowling when he was given a chance to bowl in a match.
• After passing the CA Intermediate examinations, he decided to drop out and enroll himself in a Master of Business Administration in finance to allow him to pursue cricket further.

Venkatesh Iyer Domestic Career

• Venkatesh Iyer made his T20 debut for Madhya Pradesh against Railways in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Indore on 25 March 2015.
  • • He did not get a chance to bat, but he did pick up one wicket in that match.
• Venkatesh Iyer made his first-class debut for his Madhya Pradesh against Hyderabad at Indore in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy.
  • • He didn’t get a chance to bat, but he picked up one wicket from his two overs in that match.
• He made his List A debut for Madhya Pradesh against the Saurashtra cricket team at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on 11 December 2015. The same year he was pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
• He made his first-class debut for Madhya Pradesh in the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy on 6 December 2018.
• Venkatesh Iyer scored 198 runs against Punjab in the Elite Group D match of Vijay Hazare Trophy at Holkar Stadium in Indore.
  • • Venkatesh opened the batting for his home state slamming 20 boundaries and seven sixes from 146 balls.
    • He fell short by two runs for his double-century His spectacular innings with the bat helped his side to amass 402 runs at the loss of three wickets from 50 overs.
    • Madhya Pradesh won that match by 105 runs.

Venkatesh Iyer IPL Career

• In February 2021, Iyer was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders or KKR in the IPL auction ahead of the 2021 Indian Premier League.
• On 20 September 2021, he made his IPL debut against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
• On September 23, 2021, he scored his maiden IPL fifty against Mumbai Indians.
• After the resumption of the IPL, with the remaining matches having been played in the United Arab Emirates, Venkatesh Iyer emerged as a key player for KKR by scoring 320 runs till the end of the tourney.
• His important knocks enabled KKR to reach the IPL 2021 final. He scored a knock of 29 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first Eliminator, following it up with a stroke-filled 51 against Delhi Capitals, in the process, adding 96 runs with the fellow opener Shubhman Gill.
• This enabled his side KKR to reach the IPL final against the Chennai Super Kings or CSK.
• Though a familiar middle-order collapse caused the KKR to lose the final, still, Venkatesh Iyer and his opening partner Shubman Gill were undeterred as KKR chased the target of 193 set by CSK, both again scored 50 and 51 respectively, and put on an opening stand of 91.

Venkatesh Iyer International Career

• Post the IPL 2021, Venkatesh Iyer was asked to stay back in UAE to be a net bowler in India’s 2021 ICC T20 World Cup squad.
• In November 2021, he was named in India’s Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for their series against New Zealand.
• He made his T20I debut on 17 November 2021, for India against New Zealand.
• He made his International bowling debut in last India vs New Zealand series T20 match in November 2021.
• One of the bright spots of the win was Venkatesh Iyer who bowled for the first time in his career and returned with a tidy figures of 3-0-12-1, bowling in the crucial middle overs.
• In December 2021, he was named in India’s One Day International (ODI) squad for their series against South Africa.
• He made his ODI debut on 19 January 2022, for India against South Africa.

Venkatesh Iyer Records

• Venkatesh Iyer broke the List-A record for the most runs scored in an innings, which previously was held by Australian batsman David Warner against Victoria, who scored 197 runs off 141 balls in the 2013 Ryobi One-Day Cup.
• Venkatesh Iyer played in 10 first-class matches and scored 545 runs from his 15 innings at an average of 36.33 runs per match, and his highest score in this format is 93 runs.
• He has also picked up 7 wickets from his 10 first-class games with a strike rate of 112.20, and his best figure being 3/46.

Venkatesh Iyer Batting Stats

Venkatesh Iyer Bowling Stats