AB De Villiers Warns RCB Of Weak Bowling Resources Ahead Of IPL 2024
AB de Villiers with Virat Kohli (BCCI)
Former South African captain AB de Villiers has admitted that bowling has been a major concern for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) franchise in recent IPL seasons. A RCB Hall of Famer himself, the 39-year-old also lamented the franchise’s decision of releasing key bowlers like Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga and Harshal Patel from the squad on IPL 2024 retention day.
According to Villiers, the franchise should have retained the three aforementioned bowlers, considering they have won them a lot of matches in the last few years.
AB de Villiers admits bowling a letdown for RCB
AB de Villiers, who made his exit from competitive cricket following the conclusion of IPL 2021 season, has admitted that bowling has been an area of weakness for the RCB franchise over the past few years.
The cricketer added that even though it is difficult to contain runs at a batting-friendly Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the bowlers have often committed “silly mistakes” and succumbed under pressure.
Taking to his YouTube channel, the 39-year-old said:
“It has been a well-known fact that RCB’s bowling has been an area of weakness over the years. There has been this feeling of making silly mistakes, not getting the discipline right, and not doing the basics well under pressure. We know how difficult it is to bowl at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.”
Notably, the RCB franchise released a number of key bowlers from their line-up ahead of the IPL 2024 auctions, including Harshal Patel and overseas stars Wanindu Hasaranga and Josh Hazlewood.
AB de Villiers lamented the franchise’s decision of offloading the three cricketers, and even singled out Australian pace maverick Hazlewood for his ability of controlling the team’s bowling line-up. He added:
“It is the area where I would be worried. If you see the released players list, they let go of Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, and Josh Hazlewood. Those three have won them a lot of games in the last couple of seasons, especially Hazlewood; he had just this way of controlling that bowling lineup.”
The RCB management also released David Willey and Wayne Parnell from their setup, but retained senior T20 fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Reece Topley. Here is a look at a list of all 17 cricketers retained by the RCB franchise on IPL 2024 retention day:
Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Vyshak Vijay Kumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma and Rajan Kumar.
The RCB camp, set to be led by Faf du Plessis in next year’s IPL 2024 season, will head into the auctions on December 19 with an available purse of INR 23.25 Cr.
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