Venkatesh Iyer is gearing up to reprise the role of an opener for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season as skipper Shreyas Iyer returns to the side after missing the 2023 edition due to injury.
“With Shreyas [Iyer] coming back into the team, I might have to slot up... I think I would be opening this year,” Venkatesh told Sportstar on Sunday after scoring his maiden First-Class hundred in Madhya Pradesh’s crushing 319-run win over host Pondicherry in the Ranji Trophy.
He reached the three-figure mark off 111 balls and immediately doubled over for about a minute before breaking into a routine celebration. It wasn’t the result of cramps or exhaustion but the welling-up emotions as he felt a void had finally been filled.
“This was one box that was left to tick, and this is the beginning of many more hundreds... I got a little emotional. As soon as I scored the hundred, I realised that this was something that I had been missing. I have been in this team for over six years now. Just looking at people score hundreds, being happy for them, contributing to the side with bat and ball, but then when my stats come up, I don’t see a hundred, I feel a little void. But now I was finally able to score a hundred and firsts are always special,” he said.
Venkatesh, who lifted MP from a precarious 85 for six on day three and forged valuable partnerships with the lower order to set Pondicherry a mammoth 428-run target, rated this hundred as highly as the one he scored in the IPL last year.
“Coming in the third innings, I went in when the team needed me to score some runs. The best part of this innings, which stands out, is that I batted with the tail. I was able to manoeuvre the field. I have always wanted to bat with all the fielders on the boundary. This is a sight that I visualise a lot. This will be right up there with my IPL hundred.”
After bursting onto the scene in IPL 2021, which was followed by a lukewarm 2022 season, Venkatesh found his mojo again in IPL 2023 with 404 runs, mainly at No. 3 and 4, at a markedly improved strike rate of 145.85. He also became only the second KKR batter, after Brendon McCullum in 2008, to clock an IPL century, which came off 49 balls against Mumbai Indians at No. 3.
KKR’s Venkatesh Iyer reacts after scoring a hundred during the IPL match between KKR and Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. | Photo Credit: K R DEEPAK/The Hindu
But with Shreyas coming back to lead the side and likely to slot in at one drop, Venkatesh believes he will have to move back up.
The all-rounder, though, isn’t a stranger to floating across the batting order. He bats in the middle order for MP and was made to play the role of a finisher in the Indian team following his exploits in IPL 2021, and he did make an impression with some brisk cameos at No. 6 in a three-match T20I series against West Indies in 2022.
However, what had also piqued the interest of the selectors, who were on the lookout for a replacement for the injury-plagued Hardik Pandya ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia that year, was Venkatesh’s ability to bowl, which didn’t stand out at the international level in the limited opportunities he got.
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To compound his woes, in the middle of a rollicking Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign in 2022, he broke his ankle in a freak accident, following which he had to play as a specialist batter in the 2023 season of the IPL.
But Venkatesh acknowledges that his role with the ball is vital to having another go at the highest level, and says he is a ‘hundred percent ready’ to bowl.
“I am ready to bowl. Against Odisha [in the Ranji Trophy], I was bowling really well. I picked up a few wickets [two]. Our spin department is very good, and we are playing on wickets that are conducive for spin bowling, so unfortunately, I am not getting a lot of bowling.
“I am hundred percent ready to bowl. That is something that will help me play at a higher level. Batting everyone is doing well, but to be able to bowl those 15 to 20 overs for the team is something I am looking at,” he said.
The 29-year-old added that he was working on adding some variations to his bowling arsenal but wasn’t necessarily looking to clock higher speeds.
“When it comes to bowling with the red ball, it is more about grouping and accuracy. Bowling the ball in a particular area for longer spells. If there is work in the ball, then pace doesn’t matter that much. You can bowl at 140 kmph, but if there is no work in the ball, then the batsmen are going to find it easy. But if you are bowling in the 120s or early 130s but you are seaming and swinging the ball, that is where the batsmen are confused about whether to play or leave. That is what I am working on - adding a little bit of nip to my bowling, not really pace, but giving the ball that extra backspin so that I can get those edges,” he said.
With the T20 World Cup scheduled later this year in June and Hardik’s availability for the showpiece event in doubt due to injury, Venkatesh could stake his claim in the Indian team and make a comeback, depending on his IPL returns. However, he is wary of committing the same mistake he did ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup.
“A mistake that I made was when I started looking at the World Cup [in 2022]. When I was picked for the Indian team, I started looking at Melbourne, and Sydney and playing the World Cup there. Then I realised it’s not a sprint but a marathon... Thinking about the World Cup would be stupid. The most important thing is to play in the Ranji Trophy and take MP to the final and win the title with them. If I were thinking about the T20 World Cup now, that would be an injustice to the MP team. If it happens, well and good, otherwise life will go on,” he said.
With Madhya Pradesh coach Chandrakant Pandit taking over the reins of KKR last year, Venkatesh feels he has a close confidant in the veteran strategist and anticipates a special season for the Knight Riders.
“The way he looks at life is so different. He gives the angle of discipline into life... His presence is more of a moral support for me. It is always good to have someone who knows you in and out. In the Ranji Trophy and the IPL, I find it all the more easy to talk to him about the game because he knows what kind of conversations I like. I know what mood he is in... He has also got into that zone in the IPL. It was his first time coaching an IPL team and he did an amazing job. I really feel that this year is going to be extremely special for KKR.”
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