Brendon McCullum, the head coach of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has recently expressed that KKR opener Venkatesh Iyer was about to play the KKR’s eighth match in India during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. However, destiny had other plans, as he made his debut in the UAE.
It happened as the tournament got postponed in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He smashed an unbeaten 41 off 27 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Abu Dhabi. The batsman did exceptionally well and finished with 370 runs in ten games which came at a strike rate of 128.47.
𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨! 🙌
@ivenkyiyer2512 #KKR #AmiKKR #KorboLorboJeetbo #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/cSuBaOZ6Mu
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) October 17, 2021
The left-hander hit a half-century in the final against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday. But KKR faced a 27-run defeat.
While speaking about this season, McCullum said at a post-match conference: “Venkatesh Iyer has been quite an incredible story. Looking back, he was actually going to play the next game when we were in India. In a funny way, the break came there at a good time too. It gave him an opportunity to just get another couple of months of cricket under his belt, to understand that his opportunities weren’t too far away.”
“For him, it was a matter of bringing the game he owns – the Venkatesh Iyer game plan – to the table, which is an aggressive intent. He’s a big presence; he’s a tall man. He plays the game with a cavalier kind of streak. It’s so important he holds on to that. He will be challenged to change his methods at times too. He might not necessarily be the most consistent because of his flamboyancy. I hope he remains the Venkatesh Iyer that we have seen so far. He’s got an enormous future in this game, and he’s a very intelligent man. He was a big catalyst for our turnaround this season,” Brendon McCullum further added.
𝘼𝙣 𝙤𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙆𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙩! 💜⚔️#KKR #KorboLorboJeetbo #AmiKKR #আমিKKR #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/NaCL6T3wLN
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) October 16, 2021
“We weren’t able to get the real impact through our middle-order players” – Brendon McCullum
Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill (51) stitched 91 runs for the opening wicket in the final but they struggled to 165 for 9 in a stiff chase of 193. However, the coach has also applauded Rahul Tripathi (397) for his valuable contributions.
“I think it is a fair assessment. Our bowling group did a really good job. We fielded well and our top-order batting was superb. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the real impact through our middle-order players. There’s a lot of experience there, and they will be the first ones to admit that they didn’t have the greatest of tournaments. Unfortunately, it happened among all the middle-order (batters),” the coach concluded.
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