“Oh bhaiyya ball dena…,” shouted a visibly exhausted Karn Sharma as he had been bowling for almost 40-45 minutes by then. The same was the condition of Wayne Parnell who was bowling in tandem with the leggie. The harder they tried to get better of two RCB young guns, further they saw their deliveries travel at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. They were Mahipal Lomror and Anuj Rawat, smothering two of their teammates mercilessly.
Lomror was batting already and Rawat joined him after attending the press conference. The Delhi boy padded up, put on his helmet, and marched onto the nets. His body language was completely different under the lights at the Kotla. On the other hand, Parnell marked his run-up, came in rushing full throttle, and bowled a short ball. Rawat rocked back and pulled it with authority to clear the square-leg fence. The next was a flighted one from Sharma that landed in Rawat’s arc. Same results – muscled for a six – but this time, over the bowler’s head.
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Lomror too was on song and smashed almost every ball out of the park. And whenever the white Kookaburras landed on the empty stands, the thud of the ball striking the plastic chairs echoed loud in the arena. There came those ‘bhaiyyas (the ball boys or any other ground staff) in action. They were rushing after the ball, collecting and throw it in the field.
It looked like Rawat and Lomror were mirroring each other with the bat in hand. They grew more confident with each shot and the next one came with more power and better timing. Before launching a potential mini juggernaut at the venue for IPL 2023 match no. 49, against Delhi Capitals, Rawat faced a bombardment of questions on RCB’s limping middle-order.
The ongoing season has been a paradise for a few big-ticket players but a majority of the Indian young crop, especially the uncapped batters, has impressed the least. RCB’s case is no different. They have a glittery top-order, comprising the KGF – Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, and Faf du Plessis. But if all of them fall early, the ship starts to sink. The franchise doesn’t lack good batters to solidify the middle order. It’s just that they have not clicked when they needed to.
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Rawat, Lomror, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhusdesai – it’s been a flop show altogether. They all have scored 237 runs collectively so far in the season with DK featuring in all games. The tally itself speaks volumes about RCB’s middle order. As the league enters its business end, the way ahead is tricky as RCB stand 5th on the points table. Going forward, there would be teams who can spoil other’s playoff chances and Du Plessis & Co will surely not like to be at the receiving end. So, they need to buckle up and fire all cylinders in the leftover games. Probably, that was the reason why Lomror and Rawat were batting their hearts out.
Responding to a question about the middle-order woes, Rawat said it’s an ongoing process, adding that the boys are working hard and the result is almost at the doorstep.
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“We motivate each other and we are working hard as well. What I think is that innings is somewhere around the corner for someone. Everyone is doing well in the nets. Whatever practice games we played, we were pretty confident about ourselves,” Rawat said in the presser.
After getting retained by the RCB, Rawat didn’t have a great domestic season. 196 runs in 5 Ranji games including a century against Assam. Prior to that, he had a nightmarish season in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy. He scored a mere 34 runs in 5 innings with a highest score of 13.
A streak of poor performance can trouble a player mentally, especially before entering such a huge tournament. But Rawat found motivation in the pre-match practice matches where, as he said, did well.
“When you come into the IPL from domestic games, the preparations are completely different. Also, you need to change your mindset, because you cannot have the same thought process. So, I was quite motivated and did well in the practice games,” he said.
Faf, the captain, or Virat, the captain?
Rawat comes from the academy where Kohli used to train. That affection always remains and especially, when your senior has led the Indian cricket team across formats for so many years. Rawat idolizes the ex-RCB captain and that intensity was visible in the nets when he whacked the ball into the orbit, and not just once.
While answering the aforementioned question, Rawat had a hesitant smile on his face but couldn’t hide his admiration for Kohli. He said, “Virat Bhaiya will always be my captain. But now we have Faf so he is also doing well. And we too have the confidence that under his captaincy, we’ll do well.”
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