“Venkatesh will add experience to a young side during the One-Day Cup, whilst providing an explosive batting option in the middle-order and another seam bowler that we can turn to with the ball. He will also be available for our County Championship matches against Surrey and Hampshire towards the end of August and gives us another high-quality overseas option to select from.”
Iyer, a left-hand batter, has 1132 runs from 32 first-class innings, averaging 37.73 with one century. He has also taken 15 wickets with his right-arm medium pace.
In List A cricket, Iyer has scored 1458 runs in 40 innings at a strike rate 101.95. He has four centuries and five fifties in the 50-over format. He also played two ODIs for India in January 2022.
Iyer was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad that won IPL 2024. He scored half-centuries against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 1 and the final.
“I am incredibly excited to head over to England and to have the opportunity to play county cricket for the first time in my career,” Iyer said in a statement. “Lancashire is a very historic county with a long history of welcoming Indian players to their Club
“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 team-mates to achieve their targets in both formats this summer.”
The One-Day Cup began on Wednesday and Lancashire lost their opening match against Durham. Their next match is against Kent on Sunday.
In the County Championship, Lancashire are seventh on the Division 1 table after nine rounds.
