Ex-India player RP Singh feels Venkatesh Iyer’s patchy games in IPL 2025 have been a result of the stress of justifying his huge bid price. Venkatesh Iyer attracted a lot of attention during the auction when his franchise, KKR, dropped a whopping INR 23.75 crore on him, but as yet, it hasn’t lived up to expectation.
Venkatesh Iyer Struggling To Score Runs In IPL 2025
Until now, Venkatesh has scored only 135 runs in 8 games, at a strike rate of 139.17 and an average of 22.5 that do not warrant the large investment. His last game against Gujarat Titans attracted criticism from fans, especially for his slow approach while chasing a modest score.
In an interview with India Today before the much-awaited ‘Revenge Week’ match between KKR and Punjab Kings, JioStar expert RP Singh said that the franchise may have overestimated during the auction. But he advised against letting Venkatesh go yet. Singh feels that the psychological pressure of his price may be getting into the left-hander’s head, as he might be thinking too much about his role and feeling obligated to take the team on his shoulders alone.
RP Singh Backs Venkatesh Iyer
RP further added that with patience and continued support, Venkatesh might be able to find his rhythm in the remaining games, hinting that a more gradual return to form could be the key.
“This is a slightly tough question because when a player is picked at such a high price in the auction, somewhere in your thoughts, you’re considering him either as your main player or as a potential captaincy material. But here, he has turned out to be neither. So I feel that there has been a bit of a misjudgement from KKR during the auction, at the table during selection.”
“Form Issues Can Happen With Any Player” Says RP Singh
“You let go of your best captain, and now he’s doing well captaining another team. So I don’t think it’s a great option to drop this player now. Because you’ve already given him a good number of matches. Form issues can happen with any player, but usually, the more matches you play, the better your form gets gradually. Dropping him isn’t really a solution.”
“What could be happening is that the amount of money he was bought for is playing on his mind. Maybe he’s thinking, “I was bought for such a huge amount, I must perform and take my team to the championship. That over-expectation might be creating pressure,” said Singh.
