The left-arm quick has featured in 38 T20s and has taken 44 wickets with a bowling average of 20.06.
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Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have signed English pacer George Garton as a replacement for Australian bowler Kane Richardson for the remainder of IPL 2021. The left-arm quick has featured in 38 T20s and has taken 44 wickets with a bowling average of 20.06. As a batsman, Garton has a batting average of 20.77 in the T20s, with a strike rate of 124.66. This will be the English cricketer’s first season in the cash-rich league, with the addition marking RCB’s fourth replacement.
The Bangalore-based franchise had earlier announced four major changes to their squad for the second half of the 2021 season. The edition will resume in the UAE, having been conducted in India previously. The first development is with regard to the role of franchise head coach. Simon Katich has stepped down from the position due to personal reasons. Mike Hesson will step in and discharge the duties of Head Coach for this season. He will continue to perform his responsibilities in the existing role of Director of Cricket Operations.
Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga has replaced Australia’s Adam Zampa, marking the first major update with regard to the squad build-up. Tim David from Australia has been included in the setup as a replacement for New Zealand’s Finn Allen. The third move sees Sri Lanka’s Dushmantha Chameera replacing Daniel Sams of Australia.
“We have made some changes to the squad pertaining to the situation. We have come a long way and have shown steady progress as a team. The addition of Wanindu Hasaranga, Tim David and Dushmantha Chameera couldn’t have come at a better time in the replacement window, as we aim to continue with the momentum, building on our performance from earlier this year,” said Hesson.
The former head coach of the New Zealand cricket team was full of praise for Hasaranga, who recently helped Sri Lanka register a historic T20I series win against India.
“We have a scouting program that has been in place for the last two years where we know almost every player that is playing cricket around the world at a decent level. Wanindu had been on our radar for a long time. In fact, we needed a replacement in the last IPL, he was certainly the person we called upon. It’s not a recency factor,” said Hesson in an interaction with Hindustan Times.
“We are not surprised by his success in recent times, but he has been doing it for a while. We like his skillset, and we like the fact that he is a multi-skilled cricketer. So, he offers us the ability to bat a little bit deeper as well if we choose to play the overseas spinner along with Chahal. And that gives us a lot of exciting options so the fact that he performed well against India in recent times is great, but certainly not surprising” he said.
It will be interesting to see if these new additions can help the Bangalore-based franchise lift the trophy for the first time ever.
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