He was brought back to the team for INR 23.75 crore.
In a Revsportz Exclusive interview, Venkatesh Iyer opened up about his view on the massive price tag with which the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) acquired him back in the mega auction of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The star player of the defending champions, who hit the winning runs in the final against Sunrisers Hyderabad last season, believes that there will be discussions regarding it. But, he emphasised how the duties and responsibilities of the team as a player remain the same.
The KKR-find also acknowledged that the franchise “has done everything” for him. He promises to live up to the expectations in this upcoming edition.
“You know people will speak about it, if things don’t go your way, more so. I shall be lying if I say I did not feel good when the paddle kept going up. To think you are being bought for 23.75 crore is unbelievable. For anyone and I am no different. But when you play, it is not about a 20-lakh player or a 20-crore player. It is about KKR and us as a collective. The franchise has done everything for me. Now, it’s my turn”, said Venkatesh in the ‘Backstage with Boria’ show.
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The southpaw made headlines in his swashbuckling IPL debut for KKR in 2021. He scored 370 runs in 10 matches at an average of 41.11 to take the team to the finals. However, they fell short against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 27 runs in the summit clash.
Venkatesh soon earned an Indian T20I team call-up and also got retained by the Kolkata-based franchise ahead of the 2022 auction. But, things started to go downwards since then.
The batter feels it was his eagerness to make a place in India’s T20 World Cup 2022 squad, that drifted his focus from the present and impacted his game. Though, he believes this rough patch in his career taught him “to live in the present.”
“In Dubai in 2021, I could do no wrong. I was scoring runs, taking incredible catches, picking wickets. Things were all happening fast. Soon, the national call-up also happened. Maybe in my eagerness in thinking about the 2022 World T20 in Australia, I did not focus on the present, which was IPL 2022. It may have impacted my performance and taught me a very important lesson. It taught me to live in the present and not think too far ahead. Just focus on my performance, for things will surely happen if they have to”, stated Venkatesh.
The Madhya-Pradesh player made a brilliant comeback in IPL 2024. He put up 370 runs in 13 innings at an average of 46.25. He notched up four half-centuries in the season with a strike rate of 158.79.
KKR will kick start the tournament this year against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 22 at the Eden Gardens.
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