If Venkatesh Iyer played for RCB, he would have had a really great season: Andy Flower

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower revealed the reason why the think tank team tried to secure the services of Venkatesh Iyer at the IPL 2025 Mega Auction last year in Saudi Arabia.

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Flower stated that the franchise wanted the top-order batter’s services for the IPL 2025 season as they had bid for him till the INR 23.5 Crore. Eventually, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) roped him in at the price of INR 23.75 Crore.

However, the Madhya Pradesh batter Iyer failed to create an impact in the IPL 2025 season, scoring 142 runs from 11 games at an average of 20.29 with only one half-century. Flower felt Iyer could’ve done well if he were part of the RCB franchise.

"We really rated Venky (highly), that's why we went so hard for him. It was because we valued having a strong Indian core to our team. We wanted some exciting young cricketers and a left-hander in the top order. We didn't get him. I would like to think if he played for us, he would have had a really great season," Flower said after RCB defeated PBKS in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, June 3.

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On the other hand, RCB bought Devdutt Padikkal after not getting the services of Venkatesh Iyer. Padikkal was roped in for the base price of INR 2 Crore after he went unsold in the first round. He went on to score 247 runs from 10 games before getting ruled out of the season due to a hamstring injury.

After RCB bagged their first-ever IPL title in 18 years, an unfortunate stampede incident during RCB IPL 2025 title celebrations at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru caught the attention of many. Later, the Bengaluru police arrested a senior RCB official, Nikhil Sosale, in relation to the death of 11 people at the stampede.

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