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Cricket Players'You will be KKR's find this season': Venkatesh Iyer reveals senior India player's surreal prediction ahead of IPL debut
Not many would have envisioned Iyer's career take off in the manner that it has, but there is one veteran Indian cricketer, who made a pretty surreal prediction about the 26-year-old's career.
It has been a fabulous three months for Venkatesh Iyer. Benched in the first half of the IPL 2021, Iyer, in the second, emerged to become the find of the season for Kolkata Knight Riders. In 10 matches, Iyer, 26, scored 370 runs at an average of 41.11 including four half-centuries and even picked up three wickets.
Iyer's fine show in the IPL was rewarded with a maiden India call-up, and his stocks rose higher when on Wednesday, the left-handed batter made his international debut in the first T20I against New Zealand in Jaipur. Although Iyer's innings lasted only two balls, he couldn't have hoped for a better start as India recorded a five-wicket win to take a 1-0 lead.
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Not many would have envisioned Iyer's career take off in the manner that it has. Or perhaps someone did? Well, as per Iyer himself, senior pro and veteran India spinner Harbhajan Singh was spot on with his prediction that Iyer would have made plenty of headlines by the time the IPL would conclude.
"One thing that Harbhajan Singh told me when the IPL began, after he saw me in just a couple of net sessions, when I wasn't part of the set-up: 'You will be KKR's find this season. I have complete faith in you and when you get the opportunity, you will definitely be able to do it'," Iyer told ESPNCricinfo in an interview.
"To be honest, I didn't believe it. I thought, why is this guy telling me so much when he hasn't even seen me in practice games? I thought he was just [being] a good person and comforting me. But I'm happy that it turned out to be slightly true. That's something that warms my heart."
It is no secret that it was Iyer's admiration for former captain Sourav Ganguly that got him hooked to cricket and he would turn into a left-handed batter from starting off as a right-hander. In the IPL, Iyer got a chance to meet his idol Ganguly and India and Chennai Super Kings star MS Dhoni. With them, Iyer had an interactions he would always cherish.
"I walked up to meet Mahi bhai after the match [against Chennai Super Kings]. He says, 'Keep your eyes and mind open to learning. You will evolve as a cricketer when you play these games, you will learn something or the other from every game. Obviously, I want to learn from every game, but when a big player tells you this, it has a better effect on you," Iyer added.
"And Dada, I've been a big fan. It was a fanboy moment when I met him, I forgot what to talk even."
