Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 27 : Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower cleared the clouds on the Australian seamer Josh Hazlewood's availability for the season opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), scheduled at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday and said the Aussie won't be ready for the first match of the season.
Speaking to reporters during a press conference on the eve of the season opener, Flower said, "Hazlewood arrived yesterday. He's looking fit. I did comment to him that he looks even younger than I remember him, so he's enjoyed some good downtime, but he's worked hard to get himself back up to full fitness. It's great to have him here. It's even great to have him here in our dressing room and in the meetings. He won't be ready for tomorrow, because he's just got off the plane, and we'll be monitoring his fitness very closely and looking forward to him making his entrance into the IPL."
The 35-year-old Hazlewood was a key part of RCB's title-winning campaign last year, finishing third in the top wicket-takers list with 22 wickets at an economy rate of 8.77.
The head coach also spoke about the availability of Indian pacers in the squad this year and praised the young Indian seamers trio of Abhinandan Singh, Rasikh Dar Salam and Mangesh Yadav.
Speaking about the Indian pacers, the head coach said, "Yash (Dayal) is not with us this year, unfortunately. So we have Mangesh, Abhinandan, and Rasikh all competing for a place. I'm not going to tell you now who's playing tomorrow, but we're happy with recruiting Mangesh, a left-arm seamer, to replace Yash Dayal."
The onus will be on Mangesh as he was bought for Rs 5.20 crore at the mini auction last year.
"We're also happy with Abhinandan's progress. He's bowled a lot more in matches just recently, played in the recent DY Patil competition and did really well. And I think Rasikh is a better bowler than he was last year. He's obviously been working very hard himself, and he shows a lot of qualities that could stand him in really good stead if he gets the chance in this tournament. So we're happy with those three Indian seamers," said Flower.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru full squad for IPL 2026: Abhinandan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Krunal Pandya, Nuwan Thushara, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar, Rasikh Dar, Romario Shepherd, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Virat Kohli, Vihaan Malhotra (Rs 30 lakh), Jordan Cox (Rs 75 lakh), Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 7 Cr), Satvik Deswal (Rs 30 lakh), Mangesh Yadav (Rs 5.20 Cr), Vicky Ostwal (Rs 30 lakh), Kanishk Chouhan (Rs 30 lakh), Jacob Duffy (Rs 2 Cr).