Royal Challengers Bangalore vice-captain AB de Villiers has stood his ground in saying Jasprit Bumrah is not impervious to fault.
Speaking ahead of Thursday’s meeting between RCB and the Mumbai Indians, the South African alluded to the batter-friendly wicket at Chepauk as a reason for his teammates to hold no fear before facing the India bowler growing in aduration in the eye of the country’s supporters. Pick out your predictions in the IPL and discover the best range of IPL markets at BetEasy.
But despite going to the extremes of drafting in a net bowler
whose action draws like-for-like similarities to Bumrah, de Villiers expects
the batsman to hold the advantage.
“I think I will do as I do in every single game I play.
“You have to look for their strengths and weaknesses, no one
is perfect. Yes, Bumrah is a really good bowler, but it is also possible to get
hold of him, especially at this ground (Chinnaswamy stadium) where the boundary
is short and the wicket is more often than not is good for batters. So all the
bowlers, no matter who you are, will be under pressure,” he said on the eve of
RCB’s match against Mumbai Indians.”
RCB were embarrassed in the first match of the 2019 IPL when being bowled all out for 70 by Chennai Super Kings. But de Villiers, who is set to come up against compatriot Quinton de Kock, has backed the team’s middle-order to deliver a first win of the campaign.
“We’ve got a little bit of better balance this time
around. More options as well. It’s an exciting cricket team. What I like is you
still see old faces as well. It’s not a complete washout of a new team. Same
faces but also bit more strength in the middle order. I think our balance is a
lot better,” de Villiers added.
As well as having captain Virat Kohli batting at no.3, Challengers
have experienced duo de Villiers and Colin de Grandhomme to take up the mantle
in the middle order.
The veteran, who will head to Middlesex for the T20 Blast this summer after his stint in the IPL, defended Kohli’s decision to play three seamers on a wicket where ‘the ball turned two metres’ for a Chennai team loaded with three spinners.
“We didn’t have that luxury, but I thought we had a
fantastically balanced team that can play cricket on any wicket in the world.
Obviously, looking back after the ball turned two metres, you want to play on a
different wicket but no one was expecting it,” he reasoned.
