Ravi Shastri has praised Harshal Patel for developing himself into a great death bowler in recent years. Harshal bowled two maiden overs for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) during their IPL 2022 fixture against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Wednesday (March 30) to help them secure a win.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) produced a disciplined bowling performance on Wednesday (March 30) to skittle out a potent Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batting unit for just 128 in 18.5 overs, which set up their first victory in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Akash Deep and Wanindu Hasaranga did the damage early, but KKR boasts of having a long batting line-up and they had hopes of staging a recovery with Andre Russell in the middle. 

It was at this stage that RCB’s new skipper Faf du Plessis used his trump card. Harshal Patel, the purple cap winner of IPL 2021 and RCB’s death bowling specialist, was brought on, and he started creating problems for Russell the moment he came into the attack.

Harshal bowled two maiden overs to begin the spell, and eventually sent KKR’s dangerous overseas duo of Sam Billings and Russell back to shatter KKR’s hopes. The 31-year-old fast bowler ended with figures of 2/11 as KKR are were bundled out for a below-par total.

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri lauded Harshal for developing himself into a great death bowler for both club and country. “I have had chats with him in the Indian team, he knows his bowling. He is confident and he has not overawed bowling to anybody. It looked as if he was spared for Andre Russell, which is a big thing. A lot of people can get overawed and intimidated,” Shastri was quoted as saying by NDTV.

“He (Harshal) was very clear in his mind that he was going to bowl wide and he will take the pace off the ball and see how it goes after that. There has been a big improvement in his bowling and he understands his game and keeps it simple,” Shastri added.