Shayan Ahmad Khan
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Will Jacks has been one of the most valuable T20 players in the world in the last couple of years. Since the start of 2023, he has scored 1598 runs at an average of 31 while striking at 166 in T20 cricket. His T20 record for England has been underwhelming so far, but it is still a small sample size. Combine this with the fact that he has also picked up 26 wickets at 7 runs per over in those matches, and you have a solid all-round talent at your disposal. Royal Challengers Bangalore signed him for INR 3.2 crore in the auction ahead of IPL 2023.
However, he is an opener. And RCB already have Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis in that role. Faf had his best IPL season – 753 runs at an average of 56 and a strike rate of 154 – last year, and Kohli also scored 639 runs at an average of 53 while striking at nearly 140. As good as Jacks has been, it seemed reasonable for RCB to not start with him when IPL 2024 was underway, considering their regular openers fared well last season.
RCB also traded in Cameron Green from Mumbai Indians at his auction price of INR 17.5 crore. While he had a terrific season for Mumbai in 2023, it was clear that he is best suited to bat at the top of the order. With the return of Rajat Patidar, they ended up with two players who seemed like they would be best used at number three.
Signing Green also meant that they would not be able to invest as much in their bowling even after they released Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood and Harshal Patel – three core members of RCB’s bowling unit at the 2022 mega auction. Their big overseas buys in the IPL 2024 auction were Alzarri Joseph, Lockie Ferguson.
However, the newly retooled bowling line-up and a strengthened batting line-up haven’t led to favourable results on the field for RCB. They had three of their first four games at home, but they’ve managed only one win so far.
Some of their tactics have been open to questioning. Mahipal Lomror played a crucial hand in partnership with Dinesh Karthik in RCB’s only win, against Punjab Kings. But in the next game, he found himself on the bench. Vyshak Vijaykumar was RCB’s best bowler (1 for 23 in four overs) against Kolkata Knight Riders. Again, he didn’t start the next game.
Against Lucknow Super Giants, RCB went ahead with three bowlers who each were best suited to bowling with the new ball – Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal and Reece Topley (who replaced Alzarri Joseph).
No squad in any IPL franchise is ‘perfect’, and RCB still have plenty of individual talent. But at this point in their season, Siraj has hit more sixes than Maxwell, while Maxwell is the joint-highest wicket-taker for them. They can explore different constructions of their playing XI and Impact Sub though, to turn their results around.
One way to better utilise the talents of Lomror and Vyshak will be to have Vyshak in the XI – he’s a pretty handy batter and made a first-class century a month before IPL 2024 started – and use Lomror and Dayal as their Impact Subs. Lomror plays when they bat, Dayal when they bowl. That means dropping one member from the current XI, and the unfortunate candidate could be Anuj Rawat, since they have Dinesh Karthik to keep wickets. Rawat played a terrific knock against Chennai Super Kings in the season opener, but he does have a tendency of getting stuck with the bat sometimes. He’s played 20 innings in the IPL so far, and in 11 of those, he’s faced 10 or more balls. In three of those 11 innings, his strike rate has been over 150, but – crucially – in seven of those innings his strike rate has been less than 125.
Lomror has played innings lasting 10 balls or more 12 times in his IPL career (overall 27 innings). In those 12 knocks, he has had a strike rate of less than 125 only six times. And in five innings, he has scored at higher than a 150 strike rate. Two of those went beyond 250.
A few away games might even help RCB’s overseas batting pros – du Plessis, Maxwell and Green – find better form. Maxwell had told ESPN’s Around the Wicket, that the unexpectedly two-paced nature of their home ground pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium had made things more difficult for them. “I think last year we had a beautiful even wicket that we were able to I suppose get ourselves into the game, get our top batters going and I’ve felt that those two-paced wickets it’s just been a bit of a struggle for our overseas players to get into the game and get that sort of consistency of performance,” Maxwell said.
Keeping all this in mind, there’s several options RCB can try.
Option 1 – Play Will Jacks instead of an overseas pacer
Playing XI – Jacks, Kohli/Faf, Green, Patidar, Maxwell, Faf/Kohli, Lomror/Dayal (impact sub), Karthik (wk), Dagar, Vyshak, Siraj
There is an argument to be made about how RCB’s best players are batting in the most comfortable positions. So they can send Jacks up the order and ask him to maximize the Powerplay, with one of du Plessis or Kohli coming in as lower-order pace-hitter to complement Karthik in the latter half of the innings – a role similar to what AB de Villiers played.
One potential pitfall to this is the question of whether Kohli or du Plessis will have trouble getting off the blocks quickly without field restrictions in place. Opposition captains could hold back a few overs of spin for them. Kohli has been the only consistent run-getter for RCB this season, and shown greater intent at the top of the order too, so it might be du Plessis who shifts lower down the order.
But playing Jacks ahead of an overseas pacer does mean RCB will go into every game with a formidably stacked batting order. With the ball, they could try and get 8-10 overs out of Dagar, Maxwell, Jacks and Green along with their three frontline options in Siraj, Dayal and Vyshak.
Option 2 – Play Lockie Ferguson as the overseas pacer
Playing XI – Kohli, Faf, Green, Patidar, Maxwell, Lomror/Dayal (impact sub), Karthik, Dagar, Vyshak, Ferguson, Siraj
RCB already have two new-ball options in Siraj and Dayal. Dayal’s overall performance has been decent so far. In two out of the three matches at the Chinnaswamy, the left-arm seamer has conceded less than 25 runs in his quota of four overs. Siraj has had a poor start to this season.
Although they are primarily new ball specialists, both of them have bowled much better after the Powerplay.
Yash Dayal in IPL 2024
| Powerplay | 1/92 in 11 overs |
| Post powerplay | 3/29 in 4 overs |
Mohammed Siraj in IPL 2024
| Powerplay | 1/84 in 7 overs |
| Post powerplay | 2/73 in 8 overs |
Topley is a very good option at the top, but his inclusion does not suit the team combination that well. In all T20s since the start of 2023, Ferguson has the best economy rate in the death overs out of the three bowlers. Topley has a better average in the middle overs, but he concedes more than 9 runs per over in this phase. Joseph has a better economy in the middle overs, but he averages over 30. Topley is the best new ball bowler among them. But as an overall asset, Ferguson is the best option to bowl after the field restrictions are over.
Option 3 – Open with Will Jacks, and drop Faf du Plessis
Playing XI – Kohli, Jacks, Green, Patidar, Maxwell, Lomror/Dayal (impact sub), Karthik, Dagar, Vyshak, Overseas Pacer, Siraj
The other alternative is to take a big risk, and drop a big name player. Having signed Green, and given his all-round ability and high ceiling, they might as well persist with him in the XI. No T20 team should actually consider dropping Maxwell, unless he’s in absolutely terrible form and can’t seem to hit the ball at all. If they still want to play an overseas pacer, can they take the risk of swapping in Jacks for du Plessis at the top of the order? As far as captaincy is concerned, Kohli or Maxwell could do the role.
It may not work, and it is harsh to bench du Plessis so soon. He had a great outing against CSK, two low scores against PK and KKR, and looked to be finding his groove against LSG before he was run out. He played Major League Cricket, had a short stint in the Caribbean Premier League and then the SA20 leading into IPL 2024, with mixed returns. In the MLC, he had a torrid time, scoring just 46 runs in seven innings. The CPL went much better, but du Plessis played only three games, and scored 112 runs in those. He had a bad start to the SA20, but he started picking up some form towards the final stages of the tournament, ending with 239 runs in 11 innings.
Jacks averaged two runs less than du Plessis in the SA20, but added another 0.4 runs per ball. He also adds another bowling option for RCB. Despite that, it is far from a straightforward decision to replace du Plessis with Jacks. After all, du Plessis has been a consistent performer in the IPL over several seasons, while Jacks is yet to make his debut in the premier T20 competition.
It is still only four games into the season, so RCB could very well turn things around. But they’d have to win at least seven or eight games in the next ten to feel confident about a playoff spot.
