The RCB fans have been left furious and others are shocked to see that Wanindu Hasaranga got dropped for their clash against the Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday afternoon.
This is a must-win encounter for RCB and yet, they decided to go without their two overseas stars in Wanindu Hasaranga and Josh Hazlewood, replaced by Michael Bracewell and Wayne Parnell, both of whom hadn’t played for a while in the tournament. Fans were taken aback that Anuj Rawat was continued being given the backing despite his unimpressive shows so far in IPL 2023.
Wanindu Hasaranga is the 4th ranked T20I ICC bowler and Hazlewood 3rd.
While Rajasthan Royals brought in leg-spinner Adam Zampa for Trent Boult, this suggested that the pitch will be assisting spin bowlers and so the ground dimensions – RCB, on the other hand, dropped the world-class leg-spinner that is Wanindu Hasaranga.
Wanindu Hasaranga has had a decent tournament so far: 9 wickets in 8 matches with an economy of 8.89. These are not bad numbers given RCB have mostly played on batting-friendly surfaces.
Here are some of the reactions of fans slamming RCB for dropping Wanindu Hasaranga and Hazlewood:
Faf du Plessis' captaincy has been nothing short of abysmal this season. He has dropped two of the team's most important overseas players, Hazlewood and Hasaranga. Their absence has weakened both the pace and spin bowling unit. https://t.co/DCn9zb5QKc
— Stephen (@albatrosscric) May 14, 2023
We should have backed Hasaranga … Our wicket-taker last match… On this big ground, he would have been effective … Now we don't have a wicket taker anyway this season is done .
— Sai (@akakrcb6) May 14, 2023
Dropped Sanju owner Hasaranga in a day game on a dry pitch. Time to sack this management
— ` (@epicvirat) May 14, 2023
Hazlewood & Hasaranga can be ousted, but Anuj Rawat, with a career average of 14 and SR of 102.44, can't be dropped?
— Sparsh Telang (@_cricketsparsh) May 14, 2023
Hazlewood and Hasaranga dropped before Rawat. Amazing.
— Manya (@CSKian716) May 14, 2023
No matter how awful Wanindu Hasaranga would have been, you'd still want to avoid leaving him out of the XI.
He's still your premier spinner & crucially, a wrist-spin option.
*Unless carrying a niggle
— Jeet Vachharajani (Men's Cricket) (@Jeetv27) May 14, 2023
https://twitter.com/rajdeepcric/status/1657689354666651650?s=20
Wanidu "can't bat can't take wicket" Hasaranga pic.twitter.com/F6vHmhLeqn
— Jay. (@peak_Ability14) May 9, 2023
Okay so they have dropped Hasaranga on turning track and playing with three pacers while opposition has only picked two pacers ,dropped boult for zampa which is a good move on this track. And I feel RCB will get another pacer while defending who is as bad as Harshal.
— Archer (@poserarcher) May 14, 2023
After watching RR spin trio operate …probably this is the pitch where Hasaranga would have been at his best that too in defending 😭😂 https://t.co/CAGdVrRKZq
— Fanatic (@TheSandeepTweet) May 14, 2023
Another brain dead move from RCB clown management to drop Hasaranga in Jaipur. I agree Bracewell was needed because of batting depth but they could have played an Indian seamer ahead of Parnell .
— Slog Sweep-189 (@SloggSweep) May 14, 2023
Today’s match vs RR is a must-win game for RCB. RCB have 10 points in 11 matches and all their three remaining games are must-win encounters for them to reach 16 points. Losing any one of them, with their poor NRR, would mean all but elimination from the playoff race for RCB.
Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bat first.
Teams:
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Adam Zampa, Sandeep Sharma, KM Asif, Yuzvendra Chahal
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik(w), Michael Bracewell, Wayne Parnell, Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj
Sanju Samson: Would have batted first as well. The pressure is on, we are treating this as a semi-final. To be honest, we have had just one flat game against Gujarat, the rest of the games we have played competitive games. There are a few niggles that players carry through the tournament, but the support staff have done a good job managing that. One change for today, Zampa comes in for Boult.
Faf du Plessis: We will have a bat first. The conditions might favor that, looks like a dry wicket. It is very clear from here on for us, that is not a bad thing sometimes. We need to execute better. 3-4 guys are putting their hand up every game, we need a bit more probably to cash in on some good positions. Wins are important, net run rate is not something we can bother about now. I think we crossed that bridge in the last game. Two changes – Parnell coming in for Hazlewood, Bracewell in for Hasaranga
