Vice-Captain Venkatesh Ayer of Kolkata Knight Riders has made it clear that his Rs 23.75 crore price tag does not mean that he will have to score big in every match. He says that he pays attention to the “effective contribution” for the team, not just on the figures of runs. Venkatesh Ayyar retained the Right to Match (RTM) card in the mega auction, after which he became the most expensive and the third most expensive player of the team. However, his performance in the first two matches of this season was not good-only 9 runs could be scored. After this, questions started raising about his price tag.
It is not necessary to score runs in every match: Iyer
Venkatesh said after his 29 -ball bang 60 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad, ‘Pressure is a little, you people (media) talk a lot. But being the most expensive player does not mean that I have to score runs in every match. This is about how I am winning the match for the team and what effect I am. The pressure is not of money or runs, but the victory of the team.
’20 million or 20 crores, IPL does not matter ‘
When asked if the pressure on him is now removed, Venkatesh said: ‘You tell me? The pressure will end when… I always say-after starting IPL, no matter whether you are getting 20 lakhs or 20 crores. I am a player of the team and my goal is to contribute to the team’s victory. Many times there are tricky conditions where my job has to give stability to the team by playing a few overs. Even if I could not score runs by doing this, I still worked for the team.
‘KKR plays wisely aggressive’
This season was criticized by KKR’s middle order as his batting against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (Mi) collapsed. But Venkatesh said that KKR ‘does not believe in aggression without thinking, but he has faith in “calculated aggression”.’ Iyer said, ‘aggression does not mean hitting every ball sixes. This is about understanding the right intentions and pitch. We do not want to be a team that sometimes score 250 runs and sometimes heaped on 70 runs. We want us to understand the pitch quickly and be 20 runs ahead of the cross score. This is the aggression of KKR. ‘Now KKR’s next challenge will be against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). It will be interesting to see if Venkatesh and his team are able to maintain the momentum of this victory.