RCB head coach Andy Flower believes Venkatesh Iyer could’ve had an outstanding season if he was part of their squad

Flower said why the management worked so hard to get Venkatesh Iyer‘s services in the IPL 2025 mega auction after he played a big part in the victory. According to the former captain of Zimbabwe, the RCB camp holds the Madhya Pradesh all-rounder in high regard and desired a left-handed Indian batsman in the top order. Iyer was eventually lured back by the Kolkata Knight Riders with a winning bid of INR 23.75 crore, despite RCB’s willingness to spend INR 23.50 crore on him.

On Tuesday, June 3, Andy Flower, the head coach of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), made history by leading Rajat Patidar and company to the Indian Premier League (IPL) championship. The 18-year wait was finally over when RCB won the IPL for the first time.

However, with only 142 runs from 11 games at an average of 20.29, Venkatesh had a disappointing season. He only scored one half-century during the campaign.

However, Flower believes the 31-year-old would have performed well if he had been an IPL 2025 player for RCB.

“We went all out for Venky because we truly thought he was great. We valued having a strong Indian core in our team, which is why. A left-hander in the top order and some talented young cricket players were what we were looking for. He was not obtained by us. After RCB won the title in Ahmedabad, Flower remarked, “I would like to think he would have had a really great season if he had played for us.”

When Devdutt Padikkal failed to sell in the first round, RCB resorted to plan B and reinstated him in their lineup for a basic price of INR 2 crore. Before suffering a hamstring injury that prevented him from playing in the second half of the tournament, the Karnataka batsman had a respectable showing at No. 3, amassing 247 runs from 10 games at an average of 27.44 and a strike rate of 150.61.