IND vs SA: 5 Indian players who might miss the bus for T20I series

4. Venkatesh Iyer

The Kolkata Knight Riders opener and all-rounder, Venkatesh Iyer, was looked upon as the replacement for Hardik Pandya in the Indian setup. One of the four retained players by KKR, Venkatesh has struggled to deliver on the faith shown by the KKR management. In the ongoing IPL 2022, Venky has neither been able to perform with the bat nor the ball. Venky’s below-par performance resulted in his being dropped from the playing eleven for two matches.

With the bat in hand, Venkatesh has scored 182 runs in 11 innings at a substandard average of 18.20. Apart from a very poor average, Venkatesh hasn’t been able to give KKR the much-needed quick starts either, as he is striking at just 110.30 with only one fifty-plus score under his belt. The poor form with the bat has translated into his bowling too, as Venkatesh has failed to pick up even a single wicket in the four innings that he has bowled for KKR. Forget about the wickets, Iyer has not looked threatening at all with his bowling, as he has given runs at above 8 per over.

As we are rather expecting a B-string side for the South Africa series, this would be the right chance for backups to perform and make a case for themselves. However, for the all-rounders’ position, Shardul and Deepak Chahar are racing through the charts as Hardik’s backups for the T20 World Cup, with Venkatesh Iyer being less potent with both bat and ball. In the long run, Venky has to pull up his socks with his hard-hitting ability and score consistently and pick up wickets in the middle overs to be considered as the backup all-rounder for India going forward.