Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) players Dinesh Karthik and Mohammed Siraj shared their thoughts on their upcoming match against Delhi Capitals (DC) at Chinnaswamy Stadium.
RCB lost two games in a row after kicking off their 2023 IPL campaign with an eight wicket win over Mumbai Indians. They suffered an 82-run loss against the Kolkata Knight Riders, followed by a one-wicket loss to the Lucknow Super Giants.
Asked what has worked well this year with his bowling, Siraj, who has thrived with the new ball, revealed that he is enjoying his performances and has stopped paying attention to what people think of him. He said:
“The process is the same, but I changed my mindset. I used to overthink what other people thought of me and focus on that while bowling. I’m enjoying bowling this year and staying in the present, that is helping me to take land”.
Meanwhile, Karthik feels there are some positives, but he underscored the need for some adjustments. He opined:
“I think right now, we’ve addressed a lot of issues that we struggled with last year. That’s very positive. A little bit of fine-tuning at certain points in the game, that’s what we’re looking to do.”
Karthik, one of RCB’s stars in IPL 2022, fumbled when Lucknow assistant Avesh Khan tried to wriggle away with a necessary run in the late delivery. An escape from the goalkeeper would have taken that game to a super final.
“You will see the spinners bowling in a different way” – Sanjay Bangar, RCB Head Coach
Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Sanjay Bangar was of the opinion that the spinners need to up their game. The 50-year-old is confident of seeing a better performance against the Delhi Capitals.
He explained:
“We’ve certainly looked at the length of our bowling, especially in the last game, and that’s an area of improvement for us. We’ve talked about it and planned accordingly, so you’ll surely look at bowling in a different way.” and give us that momentum in the intermissions as well.”
The RCB spinners managed just one wicket between them in four overs and leaked 63 runs against the Lucknow Super Giants.