IPL 2025: Why is Venkatesh Iyer not part of KKR playing 11 vs CSK today?

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The defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who are hosting the already eliminated Chennai Super Kings in match number 57 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at Kolkata’s iconic Eden Gardens in a do-or-die clash today, suffered a huge blow ahead of their big game as their most expensive player and middle-order batter, Venkatesh Iyer, has been ruled out of the game due to stitches in his hand, according to KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane. 

 

The skipper, after winning the toss and deciding to bat first, informed that KKR would be taking the field with a forced change, as Iyer misses out on the game due to a hand injury. Rahane also informed that one of the few players to play all 18 seasons of the IPL, Manish Pandey, will be replacing Iyer in the playing XI.

 

KKR playing XI vs CSK today:

 

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy

 

Impact players: Harshit Rana, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia, Anrich Nortje, Mayank Markande

 

Iyer’s underwhelming season 

Venkatesh Iyer, who was re-signed by KKR for Rs 23.74 crore during the IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah, has been one of the least valuable players in IPL 2025. KKR’s decision to bid big on Iyer came after the southpaw scored 404 and 370 runs for the three-time champions in IPL 2023 and 2024, and was one of the reasons why KKR were able to lift the IPL trophy after a decade in 2024.

 

However, Iyer’s performance took a huge dip in IPL 2025 as, so far, in the 11 matches he has played for KKR, he has scored only 142 runs at an average of 20.29. What is more worrisome for the defending champions is that out of his 142 runs, 60 came in just one innings, which means that if we set that aside, he has scored just 82 runs in 10 matches.