Venkatesh Iyer opens up about MS Dhoni’s advice amid career reset after KKR exit ahead of IPL 2026

Venkatesh Iyer never shied away from the people who helped him. He is a great oracle and loves to put forward his ideas and what he has learned from the game so far. Even after KKR released him this month, the all-rounder seems as grounded as when no one outside Madhya Pradesh cricket circles knew his name.

Asked to choose his all-time IPL XI, he had no hesitation in handing over the captaincy to MS Dhoni, the same man who gave him one of the most important dressing room lessons of his career.

Lesson from MS Dhoni to Venkatesh Iyer

Much before choosing Dhoni to lead an all-time team, Venkatesh was faced with the reality of his part. When their paths crossed, Dhoni gave him a warning that only a player who had seen the whole circus could give him.

The attention, the noise, the social media buzz, the endless praise, all of it would come quickly, Dhoni said, and most of it was designed to distract the mind rather than help the game. Venkatesh often repeated this message because he hit it at the right time. This has helped him stay intact despite the ups, downs and now an expected exit of sorts after a Rs 23.75 crore tenure with KKR.

“I think the first time I met MS, he told me about a lot of things that will come to you now because you played well in 2-3 games. A lot of blitz will come to you. So many people will want to talk to you. You will get a lot of attention, a lot of buzz on social media, everything like that. It’s very important to decipher that and your game. Sometimes it takes over the game. So that advice was very important to me. He told me to keep my eyes, ears and mind open. The more you learn, the more you will enjoy the game and learn from it as well.” said Venkatesh while talking to CrickTracker.

Not long ago, Venkatesh was just a try for KKR midway through IPL 2021. Fantastically, he helped KKR reach the final. From that moment until the final against Dhoni’s CSK, he rose quickly and soon made his India debut. His overall record still shows how valuable he was: 1468 runs in 62 matches with a strike rate of 137, hundred, twelve fifties. Although KKR failed to utilize his bowling, Venkatesh had long been touted as the next big-pace bowling all-rounder.

Venkatesh Iyer’s all-time T20 XI

Virender Sehwag, Abhishek Sharma, AB De Villiers, Suresh Raina, Ben Stokes, Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Rashid Khan, Sunil Narine, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah.

12th man: Matthew Hayden