India allrounder Venkatesh Iyer is honing his skills by playing domestic cricket in England. He has signed for Lancashire Cricket and played five List A games for the the club before making his county championship debut on Thursday and managed just four runs before being caught behind in the first innings against Surrey at the Kennington Oval in London.
Iyer though had a mixed outing in the one-day cup where he took three wickets and scored 68 runs across five innings while batting in the lower middle-order. His notable performance came against Worcestershire when he scored 25 runs and then took two wickets in an over when the opposition team needed 15 runs from 12 deliveries.
This is Iyer’s first stint playing domestic cricket in England and he had earlier said he’s looking forward to gaining some valuable experience.
“Lancashire is a very historic county with a long history of welcoming Indian players to their Club. I am looking forward to emulating the likes of Farokh Engineer, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and most recently Washington Sundar in wearing the Red Rose colours at Emirates Old Trafford,” Venkatesh said.
“To test my skills in both one-day and first-class cricket in English conditions is going to really benefit my game. I hope that I can entertain the fans and help my Lancashire teammates to achieve their targets in both formats this summer,” he added.
In 20 first-class matches, Iyer has scored 1132 runs at an average of 37.73. He has one century and 10 fifties to his name.
Lancashire were bowled out for 204 in 58.4 overs with wicketkeeper-batter Matthew Hurst’s 46 being the best effort by a batter in their first dig. For Surrey, Jordan Clark took 4/57 while Daniel Worrell 3/57 and Conor McKerr chipped in with a couple of wickets.
In reply, Surrey have made a solid start with 83/0 in 21.2 overs. Captain Rory Burns was unbeaten on 44 alongside his opening partner Dominic Sibley who has made 37 not out.
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