‘Faf du Plessis at No. 3, give up…’: Indian great suggests huge changes to RCB line-up

Former India cricket team batsman Krishnamachari Srikkanth has suggested major changes to the Royal Challengers Bangalore starting XI for IPL 2024 after their loss to Kolkata Knight Riders. In a discussion with Star Sports, Srikkanth said that Will Jacks should be given a chance to start alongside Virat Kohli, while Faf du Plessis should come in at No. 3. He also suggested that RCB should drop Alzarri Joseph and Rajat Patidar and also include Indian fast bowlers like Akash Deep.

“Will Jacks is a great spinner and I think we can push him for 2 overs. According to me, if I was the captain, the line-up should be like this. Will Jacks Will Jacks), Virat Kohli opens. Faf du Plessis at 3, Cameron Green (4), Glenn Maxwell Maxwell, then you drop Alzarri Joseph, drop Patidar and play Indian fast bowler – Akash Deep,” Srikanth told Star Sports ” said in the program.

“Then you have to have a good balance with both the bat and the ball. Otherwise, you will struggle while bowling. Yesterday, I was surprised that RCB didn’t bowl a bouncer down the throat. Come on, you get Sunil Na Lin scored 50 (47 off 22 balls),” Srikkanth added.

The sample size of three games may be too small to form an opinion, but given the lack of diversity in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s bowling attack, they may just be staring at a long and tiring IPL season this year.

Friday’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders provided the latest and biggest footprint of this particular weakness as the RCB bowlers failed to stop a set of free batsmen while defending 183.

The immediate defense will be the presence of Dew and the improved bowling of M Chinnaswamy in the second innings. But a deeper look gives a different picture.

Defending the total, even a competitive total like 183, requires a good start, however, the RCB bowlers were profligate.

Mohammed Siraj’s long ball was hit mid-wicket by Phil Salt for a six and the English got two more juicy offerings at the fifth stumps , scoring six and four points respectively. The first round overproduced 18 rounds.

Alzarri Joseph came on in the third round. But the pacer hit the leg stump with a long ball to Sunil Narine, who was sent out for six over and later sent another one in the same direction. Short pitches, maximum runs scored.

These balls will be punished at this level – dew or no dew, easy pitches or tough pitches.

The exception was Vysakh Vijayakumar, who used the knuckleball and pace delivery to good effect, returning with excellent figures of 1/23, but more experienced names were reluctant to introduce these changes – at least consistently.

“The batting was a little better in the second innings as the ball reached the bat a little faster due to the dew. I tried to use long and short balls to hit the pitch to contain the batsmen,” Vijay Kumar said during the match said. Post-match press conference.

“But it was still tight at both ends. We did try to mix it up but they (KKR batsmen) got away with it.” There was some truth to what he said. Statistics show that KKR bowlers took 3 wickets while conceding just 20 runs off 22 balls bowled at a speed of less than 120 km/h.

Meanwhile, RCB bowlers bowled 19 balls at a speed of 120 kmph but conceded 40 runs and could only take one wicket.

(with PTI input)