Newly-appointed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Andy Flower has backed Yash Dayal to come good for the team in the 2024 IPL season. The left-arm pacer had a great debut IPL season for Gujarat Titans in 2022, before being on the receiving end of Rinku Singh’s assault. In the IPL 2024 auction, RCB paid a whopping INR 5 crore for him.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) made some interesting choices during the IPL 2024 Auction in Dubai, where the Bangalore-based franchise purchased Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Lockie Ferguson, Tom Curran, Saurav Chauhan, and Swapnil Singh to bolster their bowling department after releasing the majority of their bowlers from the 2023 season.
Speaking to the media, RCB head coach Andy Flower defended the team’s selections, saying he has faith in Yash Dayal’s bowling ability and saw significant potential in the young bowler to deliver impactful performances, especially in death overs situations, and that he expects great things from him in the upcoming IPL season.
“As far as Yash Dayal is concerned, we saw some of his potential last year, certainly with the new ball for swing and wicket-taking potential. I know he had a hard time at the death occasionally, but we believe he has got high potential and we are looking for great things from him,” Andy Flower said.
Yash Dayal is a new-ball seamer who can swing the ball both ways and bowl an unexpected short ball, which is his strength in the white-ball format of the game. The 26-year-old, along with Mohammed Siraj and Reece Topley, is likely to open the bowling for RCB.
We Went For Alzarri Joseph And Are Really Happy To Have Him – Andy Flower
Andy Flower shared insight on RCB’s decision to pay a large sum for West Indies bowler Alzarri Joseph and his experience playing alongside RCB skipper Faf du Plessis in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and SA20 as advantageous for the Caribbean fast bowler.
“We had a go at Pat Cummins but were outbid in the end. We went for Alzarri and are really happy to have him. He is a quality operator. Faf (du Plessis) and I have worked with him before at Saint Lucia Kings and I think Faf’s worked with him in the SA20 as well,” Andy Flower added.
With a starting price of 1 crore, the 27-year-old piqued the interest of several franchises. While the Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings were initially participating in the bidding battle, the Lucknow Super Giants and RCB, with the latter fought till the end to get the West Indies pacer’s talents.
Alzarri Joseph’s pace may be effective in all three phases of the innings, similar to the roles played by Mark Wood and Umran Malik for their respective clubs, but with more control and could be key to the team’s success in the 2024 season.
