IPL 2018: Chris Woakes Wary of RCB's bowling Woes, Suggests Death Bowling Needs Work

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) prime all-rounder, Chris Woakes, recently commented on his team’s age-old bowling woes which continued to eclipse their campaign this season.

In the last couple of matches, the Challengers conceded over 200+ against Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals from nowhere when compared to the start with the new ball.

Virat Kohli’s side conceded as many as 140 in the final ten overs against RR to frustrate the skipper. After having taken two wickets in the first couple of deliveries of the match, RCB suffered a defeat by a huge margin, chasing 200+.

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Apart from the bowling woes, RCB has tended to lose wickets in clumps to put pressure on VK, who single-handedly reduced the margin of defeat with his unbeaten 92.

“We’ve got all sorts of areas that need improvement. We’ve not put in our full performance, with bat and bowl. Losing wickets in clusters is something we need to look at. It is not ideal to lose two wickets in an over, or three wickets in the space of two overs,” reckons Chris Woakes while talking to Sportstarlive.

Having said that, Woakes mentioned about the strategies in place which needs to be executed.

“Death over bowling is also something we need to work on. We have the death over bowling plan, but we need to execute,” Woakes said.

The Warwickshire-man has been in a good wicket taking form at the moment even though his economy takes a pounding in the end.

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In fact, Woakes is the joint leading wicket-taker along with Mayank Markande. In the four matches, the two have bagged eight scalps.

But the rookie leg-spinner wears the purple cap due to his superior economy rate of 7.5 as opposed to Woakes. The English bowler currently is going at 10 and a half.

Hopefully, Kohli won’t score many runs against England: Woakes

Despite one over remaining in his quota of four overs, VK and team management went ahead with Corey Anderson for the final over. The Kiwi ended up conceding 21 in the final over.

“The decision (to give Anderson the final over) was made by the captain and the coach. Corey bowled three good overs before that. Maybe, they thought that Corey was a good option, with him being a left-armer, who takes the ball across the right-handed batsmen,” Woakes suggested.

Further, former England great, Bob Willis condemned the move of giving a player like Virat a chance to acclimatise with the conditions in England.

For those unaware of recent developments, Virat is scheduled to skip one-off Test match against Afghanistan to play county cricket for Surrey to prepare for England series.

However, Woakes believes having Kohli playing in England’s domestic circuit will help improve the standards of bowlers.

“If counties are willing to sign Indian players, then so be it. Having really good overseas players makes county cricket stronger. It will be a great experience for our young guys to bowl to Kohli,” said Woakes.

In conclusion, Woakes hoped that Kohli doesn’t score many during the English summer. “Hopefully, Kohli won’t score too many runs and come into the international series in good form (laughs),” Chris Woakes concludes.