Sports News | Royal Challengers Bengaluru Still Have a Lot of Time to Turn It Around, Believes Reece Topley

Mumbai, Apr 10 (PTI) Royal Challengers Bengaluru's overseas batters have got a lot of time to turn around a poor start and resurrect a faltering campaign in the Indian Premier League, said fast bowler Reece Topley ahead of their clash against Mumbai Indians here.

Having lost four out of their five matches so far, RCB are in severe pressure to bounce back. They are now faced with an uphill task given that their overseas batters have flopped collectively and bowling has also not clicked together.

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With Virat Kohli doing the heavylifting so far with 316 runs at 105.33, the others have fared miserably in their bid to support the former RCB skipper.

The incumbent captain Faf du Plessis has made 109 runs at just 21.80 whereas star all-rounder Glenn Maxwell (32 runs) and Cameron Green's (68 runs) struggles have added to RCB's misery this season. All three of them have featured in each of the five matches so far.

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"You can take away the fact that it is the overseas batters (only) and you can probably say, Virat has had quite a load in the run-scoring department," Topley replied when asked if the failure of the overseas batters has had a strong impact on RCB's fortunes this season.

"I do not think anyone needs to be an expert to sort of look at everyone's performances and say they haven't been up to scratch and that's all aspects of the game, and obviously now we've had five games," he said.

Topley said it is "still relatively young" in the tournament and the RCB side have enough fire in the belly to turn around their fortunes.

"The exciting part is that it's still relatively young into the tournament. There's a lot still to play for and what is exciting is that there's a lot of time to turn that around and still showcase how good we are.

"At the start of the season (the goal) is to qualify for the finals. To there's still an opportunity to do that, we're working hard to make that achievable," he added.

RCB have lost seven out of their 10 matches so far at the Wankhede Stadium against Mumbai Indians.

"It's always dangerous when things haven't been going so well for a side, there's even more of an emphasis to go out and put the onus on the opposition. We need to put them under pressure and we'll be doing everything we can to do that," he added.

Meanwhile, a lot of the big guns from both Mumbai and Bengaluru camps opted for rest on the pre-match day. While MI skipper Hardik Pandya did not train along with Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma was present during the training session and also batted.

Similarly, Kohli, who had trained in the afternoon along with du Plessis, Maxwell and a few others on Tuesday, opted for rest on the match eve.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)