Another generation of cricketers prepares to make its bow in the Indian Premier League (IPL), with the OG MS Dhoni still going strong. As the IPL 2025 season begins, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer would take charge as the vice-captain of the franchise, under the veteran Ajinkya Rahane. For Venkatesh, the promotion in the leadership role is a big move and he has already shown the appetite for it. Narrating an incident from his IPL experiences of playing against MS Dhoni, the KKR star revealed how Dhoni predicted one of his dismissals to the absolute perfection and even explained the logic behind such a field placement.
When Dhoni was leading the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2023 season, he moved a fielder to an unorthodox position, surprising Iyer. But, unfortunately for the KKR star, he hit the ball exactly at that location. Later when he asked Dhoni about the move, the CSK skipper gave a descriptive answer.
“Dhoni took out a fielder from deep square leg and placed him at short third, slightly away from the spot where short third usually is. The [very] next ball, I hit straight into short third’s hands,” Venkatesh is quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo Cricket Monthly.
“Post the game I asked Dhoni why he placed that fielder in that spot and he had a proper answer for it. He was trying to understand the impact of the ball from my bat, the angles. His reading of angles is just out of the world, and he knew that if I hit this shot, it had to go in that direction, so he had a fielder put there. This is being proactive. This is real captaincy: understanding what a batter is doing,” he added.
“That was the cunning of Dhoni. I could have waited for a couple of balls, but no, the next ball, I hit it there (chuckles) and it just happened. The cameras showed the exact picture of how the field changed and the very next ball I hit there. It is up to the batsman to understand why certain things are being done [on the field],” said Venkatesh.
Venkatesh became the second most-expensive player in IPL history after being bought for Rs. 23.75 crore in the IPL 2025 auction last year. Despite making extravagant fortune, Venkatesh believes in being a regular in domestic cricket.
“Domestic cricket is extremely important when it comes to all this (having an impact as an individual player). When I play for MP, there are players who are scoring a lot at the top and I get to bat somewhere in the middle. A lot of runs have been scored already. What am I supposed to do in the game? I need to score a quick 60 runs, or if there has been a collapse, I need to go steady the ship. Or situations in general.
“So spending a lot of time in domestic cricket allowed me to understand: because I knew that there are bulk scorers in my team, how do I stand out? I perform in both facets of the game, bat a bit, bowl a bit, make the team win. Domestic cricket teaches you a lot, not just about your game but how cricket in general is being played,” said Venkatesh.
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