Venkatesh Iyer’s instant rise to stardom over the last few months saw another major milestone on Wednesday as he made his debut for India in ODI cricket. With Hardik Pandya struggling for fitness, Iyer has broken onto the scene at just the correct time for Team India as they desperately search for a seam-bowling all-rounder in limited-overs cricket.
After making his T20I debut against New Zealand in November and a memorable campaign for Madhya Pradesh in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy, he was given a call-up to the ODI squad for the South Africa series.
While Iyer made his debut on expected lines in the series opener at Paarl, he had a performance to forget as he was not given a single over to bowl and made just two runs with the bat.
Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was critical of KL Rahul’s decision to not give him even a single over to blame despite India’s struggles with the bowl.
Talking to SportsTak, Gavaskar said, “I can’t understand. Whenever a partnership is flourishing, a bowler whom the opposition hasn’t ever faced, could be a good choice.”
Gavaskar went to lambast India for not using his all-round skills and questioned the tactics behind it. He also drew parallels between how India used Iyer to the treatment of Shivam Dube a couple of years back.
“Something similar happened with Shivam Dube. He too did not get the chances and encouragement that he should have. What is the reason behind it is something that might be answered in the press conference? What planning, what strategy was it that you didn’t even give him a single over,” added Gavaskar.
In fact, in the three-match T20I series against New Zealand at home, Iyer was not given the ball in the first two before Rohit Sharma gave him three overs in the third game when India was guaranteed a series win.
