IPL 2024: When Kolkata Knight Riders franchise CEO and MD Venky Mysore was asked why such a big bid was placed to buy Venkatesh Iyer, he said that maintaining balance was the priority. Buying Venkatesh Iyer was a deal of strength or compulsion, let's understand.

New Delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders surprised everyone by buying back all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer for Rs 23.75 crore in the IPL mega auction held in Jeddah. Now Venkatesh Iyer has become the most expensive player in the history of Kolkata Knight Riders till date. Venkatesh, who bats left-handed as well as bowls medium pace, is 30 years old. It is believed that he will accept the challenge of captaincy and replace Shreyas Iyer. The Shahrukh Khan-owned franchise made such a big bid against Royal Challengers Bangalore to re-engage Venkatesh after releasing their 2024 IPL winning captain Shreyas Iyer. Let us tell you three reasons why such a big bid was made on Venkatesh Iyer.

Shreyas Iyer's captaincy played a big role in making Kolkata Knight Riders the IPL champion after 10 years, but now he can be made the captain of Punjab Kings. In such a situation, after the big bid, Venkatesh Iyer, while talking to the media, said, 'I got a chance to captain the team in the absence of Nitish Rana when he was unfortunately injured and I was also the vice-captain. I have always believed that captaincy is just a tag, but leadership is about creating an environment where everyone feels that they can play and contribute to this team. If given the responsibility, I will be very happy to take it. I am ready for it. Together we can defend the championship.

Venkatesh Iyer is a big match player

Venkatesh Iyer, who plays domestic cricket for Madhya Pradesh, has that quality where many big legends fail. The art of scoring runs in knockout matches. Venkatesh Iyer is a big match player. In his debut season in 2021, he played an innings of 55 runs for KKR against Delhi Capitals in Qualifier-1, hitting a half-century, which took the team to the final. He also scored a half-century against Chennai in the final, but the team missed out on winning the title. In the 2024 season, he scored an unbeaten 54 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier-1. In the final again, there was a competition against SRH, where he played an important role in making the team champion for the third time by hitting an unbeaten 52 runs.

Tremendous form continues from last season
Venkatesh Iyer is a team man. Can perform with both bat and ball. For the last two seasons, KKR has been making him bat in the top order. In 2023, he scored 404 runs in 14 matches, which included a century and two half-centuries. His bat spoke loudly in making the team champion in 2024. Iyer played five not-out innings in 14 matches, in which he also hit 6 fifties with a career best strike rate of 158.50. Scored a total of 370 runs with 19 sixes in the season.