IPL 2025: Finch, Pujara Question Venkatesh Iyer’s Intent After GT Loss

On April 21 (Monday), the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered yet another defeat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, falling to Gujarat Titans (GT) by 39 runs at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The performance of KKR’s 23.75 crore acquisition, Venkatesh Iyer, in the game was particularly criticised by former cricket players Aaron Finch and Cheteshwar Pujara. The two believe the southpaw lacked motivation while pursuing the difficult goal of 199.

Iyer entered the game at 43/2 in the sixth over, but he had trouble getting going and ended up dying without hitting a boundary throughout his 19-ball stay, managing just 14. Finch stated, “You need to have an intent to take it [spin] down,” on Time Out.

“If your first instinct is to just run one and knock it into the leg side, you won’t be able to hit a six or a boundary if you’re not trying. The lack of intent was captivating, and you’re on a hiding to nothing.”

According to Pujara, there should be clear communication on Venkatesh Iyer strategy for the innings between him and the KKR coaching staff.

“There are times when, as a batter, you feel that the conditions are a little challenging,” Pujara stated.

“When you have a timeout, the coaches and support staff intervene and you come up with a different plan, saying, ‘This is something which is not working, we are leaving too many runs behind.'” You just want to bang it about. Venkatesh didn’t perform the part he was supposed to, and I agree with that. Was he informed, however, that he was not required to take on Rashid and could simply knock around while he was bowling? What the message was, I’m not sure.”

When the asking rate jumped to above 13 halfway through the chase, Finch, who guided Australia to the 2021 T20 World Cup championship, believes the game was over. “They had nine batters in their team,” Finch stated.

“That instantly tells me they are going to be super aggressive at the start, attempt to get up to or ahead of the [necessary] run rate, so that when the wicket deteriorates, there’s space for error. That, in my opinion, was just an extremely bad estimate of how to approach a 200-run chase. You don’t have to rebuild anything because there are nine batters.

“After ten [overs], the game was done, right? They just let the required run rate become so far out of control. Seeing them merely attempting to knock it around was really odd. An extremely peculiar innings.

“They entered the game determined not to lose by a hundred runs. “You know what, let’s get 160 and we’ll walk off,” was the prevailing sentiment. That will be acceptable to us. That batting performance was awful.

The KKR bowling was also critiqued by Pujara, who stated that they shouldn’t have been chasing more than 180. “It wasn’t a kind of pitch where you leave too many runs behind,” he added.

“You could score 60–70 runs in the final five overs, but it wasn’t a flat pitch. There was enough spin on it to suggest that they did not bowl well in the first innings. Around 180 is where they ought to have been pursuing. You are constantly chasing the game on that pitch if you are giving up more than 10 runs per over in the final ten. At the very least, you must score around 90 runs in the first ten.

When KKR plays Delhi Capitals (DC) on Tuesday, April 29, in Delhi, they will look to get their IPL 2025 campaign back on track after failing to chase 112 in their previous match against Punjab Kings (PBKS).