3 reasons why RCB must drop Alzarri Joseph after loss to KKR in IPL 2024

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the 10th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Shreyas Iyer’s team became the first this season to register a victory on the opponent's turf.

KKR won the match convincingly while chasing a target of 183. Sunil Narine and Philip Salt started brilliantly as they scored 85 runs in the powerplay, hitting RCB bowlers all around the park. Later, both Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer made sure that KKR would easily win.

Fans must have been anticipating a close encounter and some heated moments between KKR’s mentor, Gautam Gambhir, and Virat Kohli. However, none of it happened as KKR dominatingly defeated RCB; meanwhile, Gambhir and Kohli shared a hug during the timeout in the first innings, sending fans into a frenzy.

Coming back to the game, this was RCB’s second defeat in three matches, and this has raised many concerns, especially about the performance of their bowlers. One of the players who has underperformed in these three matches is Alzarri Joseph.

The West Indian fast bowler has been struggling continuously for his form and conceded 34 runs in his two overs against KKR. Not only is he going for plenty, but he's also not able to pick up wickets, which has raised concerns about his place in the playing 11.

On that note, in this article, we will discuss the three reasons why RCB must drop Alzarri Joseph in their upcoming matches in the IPL 2024.

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#1 The West Indian bowler has an ordinary IPL record

Alzarri Joseph made his IPL debut for the Mumbai Indians against SRH in 2019. He was roped in as a replacement for New Zealand pacer Adam Milne. Alzarri had a dream start to his IPL career, as he picked up six wickets and only conceded 12 runs in his debut match.

However, after that, things haven’t gone in favor of the now-RCB bowler. In 22 IPL matches, Joseph has been able to scalp only 21, with six coming in his very first match. Also, he has a very poor economy of 9.5.

Now that this season hasn’t gone in his favor so far, having picked up only one wicket in three matches, it will be interesting to see how he performs if he gets another opportunity.

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#2 Alzarri Joseph doesn’t fit well for M. Chinnaswamy Stadium

In the first two matches played at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Alzarri Joseph didn’t have a good record. In their match against Punjab Kings, the RCB bowler picked up a wicket but gave up 43 runs in four overs, and he was taken all around the park by KKR batters as the pacer conceded 34 runs in 2 overs.

The Chinnaswamy Stadium is known for its short boundaries and flat pitches where bowlers get hit around the park; one thus needs to come up with variations.

The West Indies bowler has a good pace, but one tends to be inventive while playing at Chinnaswamy, which didn’t seem to be the case for Joseph. He only bowled with pace and didn’t exploit the cracks in the pitch to trouble batters with some slow deliveries and off cutters, which Vijaykumar Vyshak did very well against KKR. With limited tricks in his pocket for the Bangalore stadium, Joseph could find himself sitting out of the playing 11 in the coming matches.

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#3 RCB have some other overseas pacers with good T20 records

RCB's bowling attack has been under intense pressure, with legends of the game like Michael Vaughan commenting, "impossible for RCB to win the IPL with this bowling attack.”

The Royal Challengers also boast some good overseas players who have played in T20 leagues around the world and can replace Alzarri Joseph. Former Gujarat Titans pacer Lockie Ferguson is with RCB this year and is the primary option to replace Joseph, who has been below par this season.

The Faf du Plessis-led team also has Reece Topley and Tom Curran in their squad. Topley could only play one game last season before he was ruled out due to injury, while Tom Curran has 196 T20 matches under his belt. Now, it’s high time for RCB to make some changes before things get out of hand.