Understands his body right now

Former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop has stated that Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) pacer Josh Hazlewood is someone who understands his body very well right now and bowls accordingly. He added that the Australian pacer has managed to make the predictable back of length line work for him.

Hazlewood starred with sensational figures of 4-12 from 3.3 overs as RCB hammered Delhi Capitals (DC) by nine wickets in match number 39 of IPL 2026 at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Monday, April 27. Batting first, DC were bundled out for 75 in 16.3 overs. RCB only needed 6.3 overs to chase the total.

During the discussion on ESPNcricinfo Timeout, Bishop shared his views on Hazlewood’s amazing success and commented:

“Josh understands his body right now, but he understands bowling as well. People talk about the predictability of that back of a good length. It still works for him. He showed in a game in Mullanpur last year with Bhuvi that he could go wide yorker, straight yorker. I think on commentary I said it’s Academy Award bowling or something like that. And he showed with the yorker to Porel at the backend that he has these subtle changes.”

Hazlewood ripped through DC’s batting, dismissing KL Rahul, Nitish Rana and Sameer Rizvi before knocking over Abishek Porel with a beauty to end the innings.

“Has got a very good skill set” – Chawla on RCB pacer Rasikh Dar

While Hazlewood claimed three wickets for RCB against DC, Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked three. Rasikh Salam Dar also chipped in with one wicket in his two overs. Dar has made some key contributions with the ball for the Bengaluru franchise in IPL 2026. Praising the right-arm pacer, former Team India leg-spinner Piyush Chawla commented:

“I have seen him very closely when he was with MI. He used to bowl a lot of slower balls and yorkers, so he has got a very good skill set and a very good mind. He reads the batter. Lot of bowlers have plenty of skills, but they don’t know when to use which weapon. He knows which ball he needs to bowl on which pitch.”

In five matches in IPL 2026, Dar has picked up six wickets at an average of 22.66 and an economy rate of 8.58.