Madhya Pradesh all-round cricketer Venkatesh Iyer has said he wishes to represent India in Test cricket. The 27-year-old isn’t satisfied with just the tryst in the white-ball arena for India and says he holds dreams of also featuring in the Test match team.
Iyer has had a quick ascent in Indian cricket over the last four months. He showcased his promise and talent via a stint with Kolkata Knight Riders in the second half of the IPL 2021, which soon followed his entry as one of the net bowlers in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup in UAE.
So impressed was the team management by Iyer’s ability to bat and ball that they handed him a maiden T20I call-up for the home series versus New Zealand. This followed his maiden ODI selection for the coming series in South Africa, for which India’s first-choice pace allrounder Hardik Pandya was not available.
The cricketer now says he wants to also play Test cricket for India one day. Iyer declared his ambition in an interview with journalist Boria Majumdar on his YouTube show ‘Backstage with Boria’.
“I’m not just looking at it from the T20 perspective or the ODI perspective, even in the longer format, I can be an asset to the team and I would like to definitely contribute to the side’s victory.
That is the ultimate objective. To make India win in the longer format is actually my goal.”
Iyer, who has played 30 List A and 56 T20 matches at the domestic level, is quite early into his first-class career. Making his debut back in 2018, he has featured in just 10 first-class matches so far. He has scored 545 runs at an average of 36.33 and taken seven wickets with an economy rate of 2.59.
Iyer will have a major opportunity to showcase true all-round potential via the forthcoming ODI series in South Africa, where he will have to step up and bat No.7 while also delivering 10 overs in the absence of any other utility cricketer.
The three-match ODI series begins on January 19 in Paarl.
