Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has opined that Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag should keep one over of Ravi Bishnoi for dangerous Tim David. Bishnoi is mostly known to bowl wrong ones and his leg-spin doesn’t turn much.
The leg-spinner is currently the leading wicket-taker in IPL 2026, taking seven wickets in three matches at an average of 11.71 and thus has the Purple Cap on his head.
On the other hand, Tim David had smashed a blistering knock of 70 runs off just 25 balls in the last game against the Chennai Super Kings.
Irfan Pathan said on his YouTube Channel, “Can Rajasthan plan to bring in one over from Bishnoi against Tim David? Bishnoi’s only issue is that his leg-spin does not turn a lot. Ideally, you want the ball to drift away from leg stump towards off stump, but against Tim David, a spinner needs to do exactly that.
“Can they also use one over from Jadeja? But more than Jadeja, I feel if there is any grip in the pitch, then Bishnoi becomes very important. If Rajasthan want to use home advantage, they should prepare a black soil pitch with some grip so that RCB’s batters have to adjust more. However, if the pace is even slightly slow, then Bishnoi’s over becomes very important. And if there is no grip on the pitch and Bishnoi is unable to extract any turn, then Tim David could do exactly what he did in the last match again,” he added.
Pathan said the biggest matchup of the game will be Tim David against Rajasthan Royals’ death bowlers. Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger are expected to bowl towards the fag end.
He added, “The biggest decisive matchup of this game will be Tim David versus Rajasthan’s death-over bowlers. In the previous match, until Tim David came out to bat, it felt like Chennai were still in the game to some extent. But his 70 runs off just 25 balls completely crushed Chennai’s hopes. His hitting sent a clear message to other teams that if the bowling is poor in front of him, he will heavily punish it. Yorkers were not executed properly, slower balls were not effective.”
RR will host RCB in Guwahati on Friday.
