Virat Kohli<\/a> forging a dynamic opening partnership. Tim David and Romario Shepherd were pivotal in the middle and lower order, while Josh Hazlewood spearheaded the bowling department.<\/p>\nWhen asked about Jacob Bethell possibly joining Kohli for a left-right opening combo, du Plessis emphasized that Salt should continue to be part of the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would stick with Salt because of the successful combination he had with Virat last year. Salt brings that explosive power, scoring 50 off 20 balls and looking to maximize every opportunity. So, I believe they will go with him. Bethell\u2019s performance in that World Cup semifinal was outstanding, but for me, I would go with Salt, Hazlewood, David, and Shepherd as the overseas options in the playing XI,\u201d du Plessis told ESPN Cricinfo.<\/p>\n
Bethell\u2019s outstanding T20 World Cup campaign, where he was England\u2019s top scorer and made a remarkable century against India in the semifinal, cannot be overlooked. However, Salt\u2019s struggles in the tournament, with just 130 runs from eight matches at an average of 16.25, remain a concern.<\/p>\n
RCB\u2019s bowling plans may face hurdles, with Hazlewood still not recovered. According to recent reports, he will miss the first two matches of IPL 2026 as he works on regaining full fitness.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t expect Hazlewood to play every game for them. At one point, he was even being considered for the World Cup, so you\u2019d imagine that six months down the line, his body will be in much better shape. When he was in the team, even during my time, our bowling attack was always strong. But without him, there\u2019s a significant gap, as he picks key wickets in the powerplay and is exceptional at the death. A lot of the team\u2019s success depends on Hazlewood\u2019s availability,\u201d Faf du Plessis added.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: RCB’s bowling plans may face hurdles, with Hazlewood still not recovered. According to recent reports, he will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,117565,17779,17774,171175,105818,47709,47712,101,31860,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-481691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-faf-du-plessis","tag-ipl","tag-ipl-2026","tag-josh-hazelwood","tag-phil-salt","tag-romario-shepherd","tag-royal-challengers-bengaluru","tag-sports","tag-tim-david","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}