‘Took 10 games to retain him, 9 to drop him’ – Twitter has a mixed reaction to KKR dropping Venkatesh Iyer

Venkatesh Iyer has been dropped from the Kolkata Knight Riders’ eleven in their fixture against Rajasthan Royals at Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old all-rounder was a revelation for KKR after his performances in the latter half of IPL 2021, a direct contributor to their winning streak that helped them finish in the top four after a poor start to the season. Last year, he scored 370 runs in 10 innings averaging 41 and striking at 128, and also picked up three wickets in the four innings he was asked to bowl.

Iyer’s form this year has been woeful. He has scored 126 from eight innings averaging only 18 and striking at at 102. Apart from a single half-century that came against Mumbai Indians, he hasn’t managed a score above 20 in any of the remaining innings. Even his half-century took 41 balls, and was overshadowed by Pat Cummins’ hysterical 14-ball 50 at the other end.

Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakravarthy both benched against RR

Venkatesh Iyer was retained by KKR for 8 crores ahead of the mega-auction in February 2022. Varun Chakravarthy, the legspinner who also impressed for the franchise last season was dropped as well in the last game against Delhi Capitals. He took four wickets from eight games, averaging over 60 and conceding an economy rate of nearly 9 runs per over.

Twitter reacted with mixed feelings to the promising all-rounder getting dropped.

Took 10 games for KKR last year to decide they want to retain Venky and it's taken 9 games to drop him this season

— Prashanth S (@ps_it_is) May 2, 2022

Action – Shreyas signals Venky to just stay at crease and give company to Russel

Reaction – Venky slogs sweeps Rashid and is caught at boundary

Result – Venky is dropped for the next match.#IPL2022 #KKRvRR

— Nick (@nick_599) May 2, 2022

KKR retained Venky n Varun ahead of Rahul tripathi just to bench them. 👏

— Kavyansh (@Kohliisgoat) May 2, 2022

KKR has the worst management in IPL currently. Shubman Gill, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Tripathi, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav all are performing well for their new teams. Venky Iyer also will perform for any other team next year. https://t.co/gHbHQJMHF3

— Hriday Shetty (@HridayShetty18) May 2, 2022

8 matches and gaikwad had 138 runs just 6 ahead of Venky. You need to trust your players. You can put him down the order, push him up and down and up and rest him https://t.co/G0JlS7cp6K

— one who bowls mystery (@mystery_bowler) May 2, 2022

Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy dropped – two retained players by KKR.

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 2, 2022