Venkatesh Iyer the left-handed opener for Kolkata Knight Riders, who set the IPL 2021 phase two one fire with his explosive batting has been handed his maiden Team India cap on Wednesday, November 17. The 27-year-old all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh became the first player to make his debut under captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid.
The Indore-born player represents Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit, and he was once a CA aspirant, but decided to sit out his finals in order to focus on cricket.
The grin says it all! 😊A moment to cherish for @ivenkyiyer2512 as he makes his #TeamIndia debut. 👏 👏#INDvNZ @Paytm pic.twitter.com/2cZJWZBrXf
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 17, 2021
He has so far played 10 first-class games, and scored 545 runs at an average of 36.33. His highest score is 93. In IPL, he made his debut in the UAE phase of IPL 2021 and scored an unbeaten 41 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, as Kolkata won the match by nine wickets. He has played 10 games in the IPL and has scored 373 runs at and average of 41.11 and a strike rate of 128.47. He is also a handy customer with the ball, he played a crucial role when KKR handed in the ball in the middle overs when Andre Russell was out injured.
Iyer was rewarded for his consistency after his stellar season with KKR in the Indian Premier League 2021. Before the start of this series Iyer had said that wants to do the same for Team India after getting the maiden call-up.
ROHIT SHARMA OPTED TO FIELD
Talking about the match, India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to field against New Zealand in the first T20I of the three-match series, here on Wednesday.
Speaking at the toss, Rohit confirmed that all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer is making his T20I debut for India in today’s match.
“We will bowl first. The wicket looks good, though behind is to have a score behind us, there was quite a lot of dew while practicing for a couple of days. It’s been good, it has been only 2 days, been a quick turnaround, back from Dubai, spent a couple of days at home and back here. But it’ll be good for the team," said Sharma.
“We have Shreyas Iyer back, Venkatesh is debuting, Bhuvi, Siraj and Chahar are back. We’re playing three seamers and two spinners. We have one eye on the next World Cup, it’s a lot of time ahead, we’ll try our options, some results might not be immediate, but the process will be crucial," he added.
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