With just one league game left in their season before the all-important playoffs, Royal Challengers Bengaluru received a timely boost in the form of a returning Josh Hazlewood, as the fit-again Australian pacer rejoined the squad, the franchise confirmed. Hazlewood hadn’t played RCB’s last match before the league’s suspension, as he was nursing a shoulder niggle, then returned home when the league was paused.
The franchise’s social media handle teased Hazlewood’s return late night on Sunday with pictures of an Australia kitbag with a caption that read: “Lost and found.”
Lost and Found 🤔
— (@RCBTweets)
Hazlewood has been by some distance ’s most potent weapon this season, having taken 18 wickets in the 10 matches he has played, at an average of 17.27 and a strike rate of 12.27, meaning he took a wicket roughly every two overs he has bowled – the best in that metric among the top 10-wicket takers of the season.
According to an earlier ESPNCricinfo report, Hazlewood – along with ’ wicketkeeper Josh Inglis – will be involved in the playoffs from those in the Aussie Test squad for the World Test Championship Final against South Africa starting on June 11.
“With Josh, he’s our only player not here at the moment. He’s recovering from his shoulder niggle that he had. He’s doing that with Cricket Australia. Our medical team and their medical teams have been liaising on what that detail looks like and he’s just taking that day by day and he’s trying to improve his shot,” Mo Bobat, Director of Cricket, RCB had said ahead of the match against that was eventually washed out on May 16 on the resumption day.
RCB’s chances of finishing in the top two took a hit in their last match. Chasing 232 against an already-eliminated , opening duo of Phil Salt (62) and (43) provided RCB a blistering start but rest of the batting faltered as RCB were bundled out for 189 in 19.5 overs. Salt, as did stand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma after the match, saw a silver lining in their defeat, saying they rather have a loss like that in the league stage than in the play-offs.
“The other way of looking at it is, you don’t mind having this game not in the playoffs. So, yeah, you can take it as a disappointment or you can take it for what it is,” he said at the post-match press conference. “We’re qualified, we’ve lost a game. No one likes to lose games of cricket. I’m hating the fact we’ve lost, as will everybody else in an RCB shirt. You’d rather have that now than you would in an eliminator, let’s say. So, we’re going to get an opportunity to pick the bones out of it and have a look at things we did well and things we didn’t do so well and come back.”
“Good to be back! Hope to get the ball rolling again and start practice tomorrow”: Josh Hazlewood 🤩
This is presents RCB Bold Diaries. 🎥
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets)
RCB face another eliminated side in in the final league match of the season, where they’d know the exact equation requried of them to make it to the top-two. But defeats for and have kept RCB very much in the hunt. Rajat Patidar’s side will go through with a big enough win given PBKS play their last match before RCB.
