In the first IPL 2023 game for Kolkata Knight Riders, they had Venkatesh Iyer on the Impact Sub list. Interestingly, he was retained ahead of the mega-auctions last season. Here, we take a look at how Twitter reacted as retained player Venkatesh Iyer features as one of the substitutes for KKR against Punjab Kings.
KKR had Venkatesh Iyer as one of the substitutes
KKR made some interesting retention choices before IPL 2022 Auctions. While retaining Andre Russell and Sunil Narine were justifiable, keeping hold of Venkatesh Iyer and Varun CV was a debatable choice. Especially in the case of Iyer, it was surprising because the all-rounder had just one good season, that too the second leg of it, on his resume. Especially with the likes of Shubman Gill also available, KKR could have taken a different decision.
IPL 2023 was not a great year for Iyer. He failed to deliver with the bat and was not effective with the ball. He dropped out of Team India but when it comes to domestic cricket, he had a decent campaign. Considering these factors, KKR should have ideally had him in the starting XI. However, they listed him as one of the possible substitutes. This was a shocking call when you take into consideration that he was retained for a big sum last year.
Twitter reacts to KKR’s decision
Naturally, there were many that were not impressed with KKR’s decision. A franchise is supposed to back its players and especially those who have been retained before. However, in the past few seasons, KKR has taken some shocking calls, which have left them without major success. Venkatesh Iyer has potential and KKR must look to work on it. Along with this, there were many other reactions. We take a look at some of them in the below selection:
And they retained Venky over gill warra clown management 😭😭😭 https://t.co/GHM7R74DOz
— Brucew tweets (SRH) 🧡🔶🔸. (@brucew_tweets) April 1, 2023
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So KKR retained Venkatesh Iyer as allrounder and not trusting him as allrounder.
They could have used Mandeep Singh who is in 11 as impact player later and have V Iyer in playing 11— Guru (@okguru_) April 1, 2023
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The one season Mccullum was in charge, he made sure KKR is never coming back to their glory days lol https://t.co/XeCZjaq6ik
— Sam (@gingerbonda) April 1, 2023
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Kkr management is a case study😭 https://t.co/Dqqj3c5Kur
— ࿗Om࿗ (@buzzlstin4) April 1, 2023
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Worst team 😭 not even fit to play in PSL https://t.co/EKQ3xWTis6
— ⭐⭐⭐ (@sathish_cule) April 1, 2023
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Next year unsold. https://t.co/SlBVhvh5d9
— Рramod. (@Cric_Pramod) April 1, 2023
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Our retention has become an impact player… https://t.co/om31sGgGp9
— Gavish Soni (@SoniGavish) April 1, 2023
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