Royal Challengers Bangalore have signed Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga, fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera and Singapore’s Tim David ahead of the UAE leg of IPL 2021.
The signings have been enforced after New Zealand’s Finn Allen and Scott Kuggeleijn were picked for national team duty for the series against Bangladesh while Adam Zampa, Daniel Sams and Kane Richardson declared themselves unavailable for the second leg of the tournament.
Hasaranga has been one of the brightest sparks in Sri Lanka’s white-ball teams, recently bagging the Player of the Series in the T20Is against India. Chameera, his compatriot, took four wickets in the same series at an impressive economy of 5.25.
“We’ve got an extensive scouting program and Wanindu’s certainly been on our radar for a long time,” Mike Hesson said. “In fact, when we needed a replacement last IPL, he was certainly a person we called upon. It’s certainly not a recency factor, we’re not surprised by his success in recent times, he’s been doing it for a while. As I said he’s a multi-skilled cricketer, he offers us an option to bat a little bit deeper if we choose to play the overseas spinner alongside Chahal.
“Chameera also, so another [from] Sri Lankan contingent. He’s bowling extremely well at the moment. He’s got genuine pace and his white-ball game has developed significantly.”
Meanwhile, Singapore-born David turned heads during his brief stint with Lahore Qalandars at the PSL. Before that, he scored 279 runs at a strike-rate of 153.29 playing for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League. He has since had a prolific run for Surrey, scoring two hundreds and a fifty in his last four List A games.
“With Finn Allen leaving, we strenghtened our middle-order possibilities in terms of options. Tim David, a power player who could become a straight swap for either [Glenn] Maxwell or AB de Villiers if required. Also gives us other options if required and he’s also performed in the subcontinent in recent times,” Hesson said.
With the three new additions, RCB have seven overseas players on their roster and one more slot to fill, which they are expected to do in the coming days.
Simon Katich steps down as Head Coach
Meanwhile, Simon Katich has stepped down from his role as the head coach of the side due to personal reasons. Hesson, who has coached New Zealand’s national team as well as the erstwhile Kings XI Punjab in the IPL, will take over coaching duties for the remainder of the 2021 season in addition to his responsibilities as Director of Cricket.
“I’m very fortunate we’ve got a very experienced coaching group. So you know my role will be to work with those guys,” Hesson said. “Yes, a slight change in role, training days and playing days will be a little more hands on and I’m looking forward to that.
“Looking forward to everyone in the coaching group making their contributions and us working together to support the team. I’ll be obviously more a hands on part of that. But I have been involved through out the last couple of years and know the support staff really well. Look, there’ll be challenges but that’ll be exciting in terms of as I said rolling up our sleeves little bit and getting back to things on the day to day side of things.”
RCB’s domestic players and support staff, not currently occupied in other assignments, have assembled in Bengaluru, where they’ll serve a seven-day quarantine period and be subjected to three COVID-19 tests before flying to the UAE on a chartered flight on August 29.
After a six-day quarantine in UAE and subject to clearing Covid tests, they’ll be permitted to begin training. Third on the points standing when the league was suspended in early May, RCB will kickstart their UAE leg with a clash against Kolkata Knight Riders on September 20 in Abu Dhabi.
Source: Cricbuzz
