The franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have been in red-hot form while playing away from home in the ongoing IPL 2025 (Indian Premier League) season. However, their winning run was halted on Friday after they suffered a loss against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Notably, RCB clashed with SRH in Lucknow on May 23, where SRH successfully played the role of party spoilers. Given that the Hyderabad-based franchise managed to put up a massive score of 231 runs on the board, the bowling unit of Bengaluru certainly missed their frontline pacer.
In the same vein, the former India player and cricket expert, Mohammad Kaif, shared his views on RCB’s defeat. He made a bold remark, stating that the franchise missed the services of the star Australian pacer, Josh Hazlewood. Quite interestingly, Hazlewood missed the last two games, and in both of them, RCB ended up conceding more than 200 runs. His replacement, Lungi Ngidi, although he bowled well against the Chennai Super Kings, having taken a three-wicket haul, proved quite costly against SRH.
“Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal looked great while bowling along with Hazlewood, but without him, it looks different. They are missing him at the moment. If Hazlewood fails to be fit in time and remains unavailable, then it will be difficult for RCB to win during the business end of the tournament. Not having Hazlewood is like getting your right hand cut away,” he concluded.
Watch Mohammad Kaif’s latest video explaining Hazlewood situation here:
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Ngidi likely to exit IPL early for WTC final commitments
Meanwhile, speaking of RCB, they are likely to suffer a further dent as Lungi Ngidi is expected to leave the IPL 2025 and will soon be bound for England, where South Africa will clash with Australia in the grand World Test Championship (WTC 2025) final at Lord’s, which is scheduled to begin on June 11.
Although Bengaluru can still finish in the top two of the IPL points table, they are awaiting Hazlewood to recover in time. Notably, the Aussie quick is currently nursing his shoulder injury in Brisbane and hopes to join the RCB camp just before the playoffs round kicks off.
