Ex-India batter Aakash Chopra praised RCB all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer after he scored 209 runs in seven IPL 2026 matches with a strike rate of over 180. "He wasn't the biggest factor but a very important factor...Venkatesh Iyer didn't have domestic form at all...but the team invested in him," he added. Notably, Venkatesh scored 32(16) against GT in IPL 2026 final.