IPL 2024, MI vs RCB Strategic Corner - Threat For MI! Reece Topley Loading...

Reece Topley will be a great threat for MI vs RCB [AP Photos]Reece Topley will be a great threat for MI vs RCB [AP Photos]

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru are all set to play against the Mumbai Indians in the 25th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024). This will be an away game for the Royal Challengers as the match will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 11th at 7:30 PM IST. 

The Mumbai Indians have a strong batting lineup, and they will be looking to do their best to maintain the momentum they achieved in the game against DC. RCB will hope that their bowlers, who have underperformed so far in the tournament, step up with their performance and deliver a game-changing show in this game. 

One of the biggest trump cards for RCB in this game is going to be the English Left-arm Fast-medium bowler Reece Topley. Why so? Let us find out. 


 Why Reece Topley Will Be Crucial For RCB?

Let us first take a look at the record of MI batters against Reece Topley (T20s)

MI Batters vs Reece Topley

Batters
Runs
Balls
Dismissals
Strike Rate
Balls Per Dismissal
Rohit Sharma19141135.7014
Ishan Kishan13120108.33-
Suryakumar Yadav980112.50-
Hardik Pandya13133.333
Tim David
13122108.336

A look at the numbers tells us that most of the MI batters have struggled against Reece Topley. Tilak Varma has not faced him yet. The sample size of these batters against Reece Topley is a bit small; therefore, let us check out the number of these players against the left-arm faster bowlers. 


MI Batters vs Left-arm Pacers (In T20s Since 2020)

Batters
Runs
Balls
Dismissals
Strike Rate
Balls Per Dismissal
Rohit Sharma36531615115.5021
Ishan Kishan42934315
125.0723
Suryakumar Yadav51228417180.2817
Tilak Varma1681105152.7222
Hardik Pandya35125114139.8418
Tim David61937030167.2912

The numbers in the table show that all the prime MI batters have struggled against the left-arm pacers. Even though Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Tim David have a good strike rate against left-arm pacers, they have been dismissed too frequently. 

The two openers' poor record against this type of bowling indicates that early wickets might be on the cards, and there will be more pressure on the MI middle order. We have already seen this happen when MI had to face Trent Boult. This apparent weakness of the MI batters against left-arm pacers makes Reece Topley a really important cog in the RCB bowling mechanism. The English bowler needs to be on the mark from the beginning and test the MI top order with his skills.