Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) assistant coach Malolan Rangarajan is ecstatic to see Josh Hazlewood back in the squad ahead of playoffs after recovering from shoulder injury. On the eve of their last league match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Rangarajan pointed out the bench strength and how people have ignored the likes of Sri Lanka pacer Nuwan Thushara and Rasikh Dar.
In Hazlewood's absence, South Africa pacer Lungi Ngidi stepped up and took four wickets from two games. But Hazlewood's return is a major boost as he is their leading wicket-taker with 18 scalps from 10 games. Also, he has the best economy rate among RCB bowlers this season.
"There is no doubt about how good Josh Hazlewood is as a player and what great impact he has had for us, but it is also important to remember in his absence, we played 2 games, we won 1 and we lost another, Lungi Ngidi had filled in very well and we believe in the strength of the whole squad, there is Nuwan Thushara who is chomping at the pits and even people forget that we have a very talented Indian pace bowler in Rasikh Salam, so while we are very happy about Hazlewood coming back to the squad, we and everybody needs to remember the quality that is existing within our playing squad," said Rangarajan.
How Rasikh fared in 2 games
Rasikh was picked by RCB for Rs 6 crore in the mega auction. He played in the opening encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as Bhuvneshwar Kumar was injured. He stopped a rampant Sunil Narine and conceded 35 runs from three overs. He played against Gujarat Titans (GT) as well and conceded 25 runs from three overs.
RCB address concerns ahead of playoffs
In their previous clash in Lucknow, RCB lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 42 runs. From 173/3 in the 16th over, they were bowled out for 189. Rangarajan said that the issues have been addressed. He hopes the team will do better against LSG.
"After every game, we sit down, we have our honest conversations, constructive feedback. What we need to understand and where Phil Salt is coming from is, when you are chasing 230, all you can ask from a batting unit is to set it up in a way where we are looking to chase 60 runs of the last five overs. And beyond that, whatever happened, we certainly could have done better. But again, I am not going to dwell into the result of what happened. We could have reacted better. We had a few issues that we had to deal with."
"As far as what came out of the meeting, hopefully you will see that on the ground tomorrow. Like we had a few challenges in M Chinnaswamy Stadium when we played the first few games. I think we have thought of ways we can address what had gone wrong," said Rangarajan.
A win against LSG will mean RCB play the Qualifier 1 against Punjab Kings (PBKS). If they lose, they will go up against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Eliminator clash.