Second Impact Player of the Day; Venkatesh Iyer Substitutes Varun Chakravarthy
Venkatesh replaces Varun Chakravarthy as an Impact Player vs PBKS
In the second over of the second innings, Kolkata Knight Riders drafted in Venkatesh Iyer as their Impact Player in place of Varun Chakravarthy. Earlier in the innings, Punjab Kings used IPL's latest rule to substitute Rishi Dhawan in place of Bhanuka Rajapaksa.
Ahead of the IPL 2022, Kolkata retained Venkatesh at a whooping price tag of INR 8 crores. However, the all-rounder failed to bag a place in Starting XI in the clash against PBKS.
Earlier in the day, Nitish Rana won the toss for KKR to ask Punjab to bat first in their season opener. However, Kolkata’s punt backfired on them as the home team went berserk in the first innings, scoring 191-5, thanks to Rajapaksa’s maiden IPL fifty and vital cameos from Sam Curran and Prabhsimran Singh.
In persuasion of a mighty chase, the Knight Riders lost two wickets in a single Arshdeep Singh over, which allowed Venky to come in at number 4 in the form of KKR’s Impact Player.
Venkatesh Iyer's T20 Career
Venkatesh came to the limelight during IPL 2021, where Kolkata went to the tournament's final under Eoin Morgan's astute leadership. The left-hander dasher scored 370 runs off 10 matches to score four fifties in the season.
However, in the subsequent IPL season, when the franchise retained him, Venky failed to impress, which saw him getting dropped from the Playing XI.
In 23 IPL matches, he has amassed 568 runs at a sub-par average of 28.40 and strike rate of 121.37. However, overall in T20 cricket, Venky has scored 1773 runs, alongside 43 wickets with his medium pace-bowling, after 80 matches.
After two quick wickets, Nathan Ellis thumped another nail in the coffin as Rahmanullah Gurbaz failed to connect one to watch his stumps go for a toss.
At the time of writing, skipper Nitish Rana is rebuilding the innings with Venky at Mohali, with KKR's score reading 60-3 after 8 overs.
 "Arjun Bhalla")
