Following a bidding war with his former franchise in the famous Indian Premier League, the Kolkata Knight Riders, Venkatesh Iyer was acquired by his current franchise and the one that happened to retain (or defend) its IPL crown: the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The very fact that his team spent no fewer than INR 7 crore should tell a thing or two about the tall left hander’s sheer utility and talent in the format. And in the end, even if it became sufficiently clear that he wasn’t played or made to feature in every single game of the 2026 edition of the Indian Premier League, he proved to be worth his salt.

How so? Well, Venkatesh Iyer scored not less than 209 runs and took just 7 games to do so. In 2 contests he emerged unbeaten and scored a vital half century, in the form of that unbeaten 73. That his batting average was, lest we forget, 52.2, gave an evidence of the kind of impact he created in the high stakes competition. But speaking of high stakes, which is where great players rise to the fore, Venkatesh Iyer has been encouraging and full of praise about a player that’s brilliant, after all.

And that’s none other than Virat Kohli. The great man who has scored even in excess of 9,200 runs in the famous franchise based competition was once again one of the key and most dependable batters of them all where it came to the famous and incredibly popular Royal Challengers Bengaluru side.  

And here’s what Venkatesh Iyer exclaimed about the dominant and widely experienced Virat Kohli, a man who is as loved as he is respected by one and all:

“Virat Kohli’s presence itself gives confidence to the team!”

And that’s absolutely true, in fact. For someone who has shared the dressing room with greats of the past and had such a tremendous impact even on such illustrious names as Chris Gayle, Mitch Starc and AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli’s incredible presence is like an unstoppable force in motion for his RCB side.

He takes challenges head on, is totally unafraid of any bowler- whether pace or spin- Kohli leads by an impact and as per Iyer’s useful observation, is willing to perform the role of a batting hero and even a motivator when needed.