Skipper Faf du Plessis admitted that Royal Challengers Bangalore missed the services of their pacer Harshal Patel in their defeat against Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2022 on Tuesday. Notably, Harshal was not part of RCB’s playing XI against Chennai at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy as the pacer had to leave the IPL bio bubble to return home after news of his sister’s tragic death. Sources in RCB had said that Harshal exited the bubble on Sunday after the game against Mumbai Indians on Saturday. It is not yet clear how long Harshal will remain unavailable for the RCB team.
“First 7-8 overs were pretty good, then there was a period from 8-14 where Dube took the spinners on. That period, whatever we tried didn’t work. In order to chase down such a big score, you need one of the first four to set the foundation. We didn’t have that. CSK used their spinners well on a pitch that had some grip. The way we came back was credit to the depth” he said during post match presentation.
“You see the value of Harshal, and what he offers. He has the ability to stop the game. We missed that tonight, we had a similar tone to the bowling. We lacked the variety we needed in our attack. Hopefully, we can have him soon again. Impressed with the way Prabhudessai played the way he did on debut,” the South African added.
Harshal Patel was IPL’s leading wicket-taker in the 2021 season taking 32 wickets. He also excelled in RCB’s previous match against Mumbai Indians and took two wickets for 23 runs.
