Andy Flower Reveals Why RCB Didn't Retain Josh Hazlewood For IPL 2024

Royal Challengers Bangalore surprised many when they released Josh Hazlewood ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. It raised quite a few eyebrows as the Australia pacer has been their best since the last two seasons.

However, the reason behind Royal Challengers Bangalore’s move has finally been revealed now. Coach Andy Flower has confirmed that the fast bowler is likely to miss the majority of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 and that they didn’t retain him.

Josh Hazlewood and his partner are expecting a baby at the end of March, which is why he will be missing the tournament. Releasing Josh Hazlewood has freed some money for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and they now would be hoping to acquire some quality fast bowler in his place.

Andy Flower said that Josh Hazlewood’s unavailability for the first half of the tournament caused them to not retain him. Speaking in a video posted by RCB on their X account, he explained:

“I’ve come up with Josh Hazlewood on the phone. He pleasingly has a baby on the way due at the end of March. So Josh won’t be with us, certainly during the first half.”

Josh Hazlewood joined Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2022 and made a great impact in the very first season of the team. The lanky pacer picked 20 wickets in 12 games with the best of 4/25. In the next season, he bagged 3 wickets in 3 games he played.

Andy Flower reveals why RCB released Wanindu Hasaranga and Harshal Patel

Apart from Josh Hazlewood, RCB also released Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasranga, Michael Bracewell, David Willey, Finn Allen, Wayne Parnell, Sonu Yadav, Avinash Singh Sidarth Kaul and Kedar Jadhav.

Talking about the release of two key players in Wanindu Hasaranga and Harshal Patel, he stated:

“Harshal has been an excellent performer for RCB in past. He is in our box a high-value player. He was for 10.75 crores and in our effort to release some cash to give us flexibility and buying power in the auction, he’s someone we had to look closely at. Hasaranga was also high value in terms of monetary player and so releasing that money into the auction gives us flexibility.”

Retained players of RCB:

Faf Du Plessis (C), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar (From Srh), Vyshak Vijay Kumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar