Kohli gives the freedom every bowler wants, says Harshal

In a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore team, Harshal Patel cuts an anonymous figure despite being part of the set-up since 2011 and having featured in 15 games last season.

One of the finds of the 2011-12 domestic season where he bagged an impressive 19 wickets in the Ranji Trophy knock-out phase for his adopted state Haryana (he began playing for Gujarat), the right-arm medium-pacer, who was signed up by RCB first in 2011, was tipped to make his talent count in IPL 2012.

He played 12 games but failed to impress upon the think-tank strongly, picking up nine wickets with an economy of 8.29. 2013 was a disaster where he didn’t play a single game and then warmed the benches predominantly the following season, managing to get just three games.

The management, however, decided to repose their faith in the 25-year-old last season and played him in 15 games. Harshal responded in kind, bagging 17 wickets, showing the lessons learnt from watching in the sidelines. With his confidence up again, the pacer now wants to step it up this year.

“The team goal is to win the IPL,” Harshal said ahead on Thursday’s practice session. “My personal goal is, like I did yesterday (against Sunrisers Hyderabad), repeat such performances and obviously get better on it. The main goal is to contribute to the team’s cause.

“In my first year, I didn’t know much about IPL or T20 cricket. I was a new kid to the scene. That year just went past like a breeze. I learned a lot of things and I didn’t expect to play the whole season. The next two years, where I played just three games, I went through a learning curve. Throughout those two years, the support staff kept supporting me. Last year was the result of the hard work that I had put in over the last two years.”

Harshal felt its a huge challenge to bowl at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. “It’s a challenge to bowl on this ground because 180-190 is a par score here. The margin for error is very small. Like our slogan says “Play Bold”, we just go out there and play bold. We back our skills and plan according to what has worked on this ground and what has not worked.”

Harshal also said playing under Virat Kohli gives him a lot of confidence. “It’s a privilege to have a captain who gives you the freedom to do whatever you want on the field. Virat is somebody who believes in freedom and he gives you absolute freedom. That is something that every bowler appreciates. He backs us to execute our skills and not be afraid of the results.”