Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh): Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Indian pacer Harshal Patel termed his ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season as an “above-average” and also opened about about wanting to be like Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and challenging himself to be as good as him.
Harshal, in 11 matches this IPL season, has picked up 17 wickets at an average of 21.29 and the best bowling figures of 3/15. His economy rate is 9.78 and is the second-highest wicket-taker this season, next to Bumrah of Mumbai Indians (MI), who has 18 scalps.
Speaking to the ESPNCricinfo before the match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Harshal said that the season has been an “above average” one for him and he could have done better in some aspects.
“There are still certain aspects that I could have done better in, but overall, if I look at the number of wickets I have picked up, and the situations I have picked them in and the batters I have gotten out, they have made an impact on the game. This season, especially, looking purely at numbers is probably not a smart thing to do. So I would still call it an above-average season,” said Harshal.
Harshal said that if his wicket-taking deliveries are coming out of his hand and he is bowling them well, he is confident in getting two or three wickets an over but it is difficult for him to contain runs.
“For me, it is all about setting those slower balls up in the right way and executing them when I know the batter could make a mistake and I have a higher chance of forcing an error. So it has not been difficult to pick up wickets. The difficulty comes when I have to contain, because my USP has always been picking up wickets, and that is an aspect of the game that I have been working on,” he added.
Harshal said that he has figured out what he needs to do to shut batters whenever needed and he is working on it. He also said that he wants to be as good as Bumrah because of how low runs he concedes no matter what.
“I have not been able to consistently do it in the game, but I am on the right path and when it all comes together, I want to be as good as someone like Jasprit [Bumrah], because we keep talking about bowlers going at nine or ten an over and throughout this IPL, there has been one fast bowler [Bumrah] who goes for less than six most of the time. I challenge myself to be as good as him,” he added.
On Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Pat Cummins’ word about doing fine as a bowler with an economy rate below ten per over, Harshal said that it is not practical to expect a bowler to go for just 24 runs in his four overs across the powerplay and death and benchmarks need to change as per the context, in this season’s case, the high-scoring games.
“The benchmark that you set for bowlers in how you judge them has to be based on context, right? If there’s a bowler who’s bowling two overs upfront in the powerplay and two at the death, you cannot expect him to bowl his four overs for 24 runs. That is just not practical. The way this season has gone, very high run rates, especially in the powerplay and in the death overs, I would still consider nine to ten an over to be a brilliant spell if you have picked up a couple of wickets at the right time and made sure that instead of getting 220-230, they end up being on 205-210. So making the difference of 10-15 runs in the innings is all that you are looking for” he concluded.