Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) pacer Harshal Patel on Tuesday (April 13) said the clarity about the role is very important for both mental and skill preparations after his record outing for the RCB in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) opener against Mumbai Indians (MI) last week.
The 30-year-old, who was traded from Delhi Capitals to RCB ahead of the IPL 2021 auction, has got “that clarity” from the RCB team management two weeks prior to the start of IPL 14 and he managed to deliver the results in his very first outing for the franchise in the tournament.
The uncapped pacer claimed his maiden five-wicket haul in IPL to help RCB kick start the IPL 14 campaign on a winning note against the MI and subsequently the skipper Virat Kohli has declared him a death overs bowler for RCB in the ongoing IPL 2021.
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Harshal told ANI during a virtual press conference: “Clarity is always good. It helps you with your mental preparation; it helps you with your skill preparation. Whenever you have clarity, you know whatever situations you are going to face in the game and you can prepare mentally accordingly and in terms of skill so it is always good to have clarity about your role.”
The right-arm pacer further revealed that he always to be the death over specialist and now he is elated with the fact that Kohli has shown trust in him and declared in that role for the franchise in the IPL 14.
He said, “I wanted to become a bowler or a player who takes on responsibility and the captain is confident enough to put me in those important situations and I look at it as a privilege. It is something I have looked forward to for a very long time and I’m very happy that I’m being put in those situations now.”
On being asked about the performance of the uncapped players in the ongoing IPL 2021, Harsal said: “Most of the teams have started looking at what the bowler is doing in training and practice games. I think it is a good trend people are starting to realize that even the uncapped players are good enough to take the responsibility of bowling at the death. I think we will see more of that going forward.”
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On his record show against the MI, the RCB pacer said: “Obviously, it is very important to start well. The sort of game I had the other night, I did not expect that, to be very honest. I wanted to execute my plans, it was one of those nights where everything came my way, I know it's a pendulum and bowling at the death, you can win some games for your team but you can also lose some games for your team so I am prepared both ways.”
On being traded from DC to RCB, Harshal said: “Not really, I was not involved in that really. It's a welcome decision from my side because I knew with Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje in Delhi Capitals, I will not get the opportunities I am getting here. It is great to be in a team where I can showcase my skills and where I have the privilege of being put in difficult situations.”
He signed off by saying, “I have had massive performance anxiety in the past IPL seasons for this particular reason, you know you are going to get dropped if you have one bad game. It is again a very mental thing, you have to figure out how you get out of that mindset. There is no one solution to this problem, each and every individual has to figure out how to get out of this mindset.”
(With ANI Inputs)
