Former Indian cricket team batsman Krishnamachari Srikkanth suggested massive changes to the Royal Challengers Bangalore playing XI in the IPL 2024 after their loss to Kolkata Knight Riders. During a discussion on Star Sports, Srikkanth said that Will Jacks should be given a chance as an opener for Virat Kohli, while Faf du Plessis should play at number 3. He also suggested that RCB should drop both Alzarri Joseph and Rajat. Patidar and includes an Indian fast bowler like Akash Deep.
“Will Jacks is a brilliant off-spinner, I think we can push him for two overs. The line-up I think should be if I was the captain. Will Jacks, Virat Kohli opens. Faf du Plessis at number 3, Cameron Green at the age of 4, Glenn Maxwell, and then you drop Alzarri Joseph, you drop Patidar and you play an Indian fast bowler – Akash Deep,” Srikkanth said on Star Sports.
“What happens then is you have a good balance with both bat and ball. Otherwise you will struggle while bowling. Yesterday I was surprised that RCB didn’t bowl down a single bouncer. Come on, you got Sunil Narine a goal have it made.” fifty (47 off 22 balls),” Srikkanth added.
Three matches may be too small a sample size to form an opinion, but given the lack of variety seen in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s bowling attack, they may be staring at a long, tiring IPL season this year.
The match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday offered the latest and biggest footprint of this particular weakness as the RCB bowlers failed to control a string of free hitters while defending 183.
The immediate defense will consist of projecting the presence of dew and an improved M Chinnaswamy delivery during the second innings. But a deep dive will reveal a different picture.
Defending a total, even a competitive total like 183, requires a tight start, but the RCB bowlers were loose.
Mohammed Siraj’s length ball was hit over mid-wicket by Phil Salt for a six, and the Englishman had two more juicy offerings on the fifth stump, each carried for a six and four. The first over produced 18 runs.
Alzarri Joseph was introduced in the third over. But the pacer gave Sunil Narine a length ball on leg stump, which was sent for a six over long-on and two balls later a short delivery was sent in the same direction for a maximum.
These are the balls that are penalized at this level: dew or no dew, whether it is an easy or a difficult ball.
There was an exception in Vysakh Vijayakumar, who successfully used knuckleballs and pace-off deliveries to return with excellent figures of 1/23, but the more experienced names were reluctant to bring in those variations – at least consistently.
“The second innings was a bit better to bat as the ball came on the bat a bit quicker due to the dew. I tried to use hard length balls and short balls hit into the field to stop batters,” Vijaykumar said in the match. press conference after the match.
“But it was still gripping from both sides. We tried to mix it up, but they (KKR hitters) got away with it.” There is some truth in his words. The statistics show that KKR bowlers used 22 balls under 120 kmph and conceded just 20 runs to pick up three wickets.
Meanwhile, the RCB bowlers bowled 19 balls under 120 km per hour but gave away 40 runs and could bag only one wicket.
(With PTI inputs)
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