Venkatesh Iyer is seen as the Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) captain-in-waiting, with the defending Indian Premier League (IPL) champions announcing him as vice-captain to Ajinkya Rahane ahead of the 2025 season. He has plenty of great examples to learn from in the league, including the legendary MS Dhoni who is known to be quite open to talking to younger players from the opposition side after matches.
Venkatesh revealed the chat he had with the CSK great about the tactics that Dhoni used to dismiss him in a match during IPL 2023. “Dhoni took out a fielder from deep square leg and placed him at short third, slightly away from the spot where short third usually is. The [very] next ball, I hit straight into short third's hands,” Venkatesh is quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
Venkatesh fell to Deepak Chahar after scoring nine runs in four balls that day, being caught at short third man by Ravindra Jadeja. "Post the game I asked Dhoni why he placed that fielder in that spot and he had a proper answer for it. He was trying to understand the impact of the ball from my bat, the angles. His reading of angles is just out of the world, and he knew that if I hit this shot, it has to go in that direction, so he had a fielder put there. This is being proactive. This is real captaincy: understanding what a batter is doing.
“That was the cunning of Dhoni. I could have waited for a couple of balls, but no, the next ball, I hit it there (chuckles) and it just happened. The cameras showed the exact picture of how the field changed and the very next ball I hit there. It is up to the batsman to understand why certain things are being done [on the field],” said Venkatesh.
{{/usCountry}}“That was the cunning of Dhoni. I could have waited for a couple of balls, but no, the next ball, I hit it there (chuckles) and it just happened. The cameras showed the exact picture of how the field changed and the very next ball I hit there. It is up to the batsman to understand why certain things are being done [on the field],” said Venkatesh.
{{/usCountry}}KKR splurged ₹23.75 crore to buy Venkatesh back in the IPL 2025 auction. He may be an IPL billionaire but the importance of domestic cricket has not been lost on Venkatesh, a regular in domestic cricket across formats for Madhya Pradesh. "Domestic cricket is extremely important when it comes to all this (having an impact as an individual player). When I play for MP, there are players who are scoring a lot at the top and I get to bat somewhere in the middle. A lot of runs have been scored already. What am I supposed to do in the game? I need to score a quick 60 runs, or if there has been a collapse, I need to go steady the ship. Or situations in general.
“So spending a lot of time in domestic cricket allowed me to understand: because I knew that there are bulk scorers in my team, how do I stand out? I perform in both facets of the game, bat a bit, bowl a bit, make the team win. Domestic cricket teaches you a lot, not just about your game but how cricket in general is being played,” said Venkatesh.