Freshly-instated head coach of Kolkata Knight Riders Abhishek Nayar recently opened up on a past episode which had contributed to the franchise bringing all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer into their set-up. The Madhya Pradesh cricketer spent five seasons of the Indian Premier League with the franchise before being released ahead of the mini-auction for 2026 season.
Abhishek revealed an incident from a trial ahead of the 2021 season in which Venkatesh volunteered to bowl the crucial final over in a practice match, which left a strong impression on the then assistant coach.
Despite Venkatesh failing to defend the score, Abhishek Nayar liked the fact that the all-rounder was willing to take on additional responsibilities during a crunch situation.
“I actually picked him because of his attitude. On the first day, Venkatesh Iyer walked in with swagger; he performed, but he never looked at us or tried to please anyone. I thought he was someone with a lot of attitude. On the second day, we gave him a game. In the final over, when our bowler cramped, Venky shouted from the boundary, ‘I will bowl the last over’. He bowled and conceded 18 runs, but what I loved was his willingness to face adversity,” Nayar shared via The Great Indian Cricket Show on Doordarshan.
“The trial mattered less to him than proving to himself that he was doing the right thing. That conviction stayed with me,” Nayar concluded.
Venkatesh, who was picked by KKR for just INR 20 lakh in 2021, quickly saw his stock rising and was valued at INR 8 crore in 2022. He was released into the mega auction ahead of IPL 2025 and bagged a whopping INR 23.75 crore amount.
His best season for the franchise came in 2024, the same year KKR eventually went onto secure the title. He scored 370 runs in 13 innings while coming out to bat in the middle order, possessing an impressive strike rate of 158.79. However, the 2025 season ended in an undesired manner for both KKR and Iyer, leading to the cricketer being released.
Barring Venkatesh, other prominent players who got released by the three-time IPL champions are Andre Russell, Quinton de Kock, Moeen Ali, Anrich Nortje, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Spencer Johnson. KKR head into the auction with a purse of INR 64.30 crore. They retained only 12 players from the 2025 unit, leaving them with a maximum of 13 vacant positions they can fill.
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