Former India player RP Singh feels that all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer is failing to perform regularly because he is trying to justify the massive price tag in IPL 2025 for KKR. However, KKR surprised everyone by spending Rs. 23.75 crore for Venkatesh during the IPL 2025 auction. However, he has struggled so far as he has scored just 135 runs in 8 matches at an average of 22.5 and a strike-rate of 139.17 as well.
“This is a slightly tough question because when a player is picked at such a high price in the auction, somewhere in your thoughts, you’re considering him either as your main player or as a potential captaincy material. But here, he has turned out to be neither. So I feel that there has been a bit of a misjudgement from KKR during the auction, at the table during selection,” he said.
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“You let go of your best captain, and now he’s doing well captaining another team. So I don’t think it’s a great option to drop this player now. Because you’ve already given him a good number of matches. Form issues can happen with any player, but usually, the more matches you play, the better your form gets gradually. Dropping him isn’t really a solution,” he again shared. “What could be happening is that the amount of money he was bought for is playing on his mind. Maybe he’s thinking, “I was bought for such a huge amount, I must perform and take my team to the championship. That over-expectation might be creating pressure.”
However, Venkatesh Iyer started his career with KKR as an opener, and RP Singh feels that it could solve KKR’s batting order issues as well.
“No, this isn’t a bad idea. In fact, it’s a good thought — to reduce one foreign player and let Venkatesh Iyer open. I feel Narine should definitely be in the team because his batting performances become important at times. So maybe Venkatesh and Narine can open together, and they can bring in someone like Powell in the middle order to use his power-hitting there. So this option isn’t bad at all,” he shared.
“It depends on how the management is thinking, because many times the coaches and support staff assess things based on current form seen in the nets and the surrounding scenarios. That’s something we can’t really see sitting outside. But yes, this option of making Venkatesh open — I think it’s worth trying. You’ve already invested so much time in him, so why not let him open the innings?” concluded RP Singh.
