Why is Josh Hazlewood not playing today’s IPL 2022 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians?

Josh Hazlewood not playing today: Royal Challengers Bangalore have made a lone change to their Playing XI for this match.

During the 18th match of the ongoing 15th season of the Indian Premier League between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in Pune, Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis has won the toss and chose to bowl.

“We’re going to have a bowl. It is our first game here so we aren’t sure what the pitch is going to do. But it’s just the general trend, and hopefully there is dew later on which we can make use of. Two wins out of three looks good,” du Plessis told Star Sports at the toss.

Much like du Plessis, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma also wanted to bowl first at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium tonight. Coming on the back of three consecutive losses, Sharma laid emphasis on “applying themselves” across departments in this match.

“We would have bowled first as well. The nature of the pitch looks like it would get better and better as the match goes on. We just need to try and apply ourselves a little more than we have done so far in the tournament. All games are big games,” Sharma told Star Sports at the toss.

Why is Josh Hazlewood not playing vs Mumbai Indians today?

A solitary change for Royal Challengers for this match lies in the form of all-rounder Glenn Maxwell returning for all-rounder Sherfane Rutherford. While Maxwell had joined the squad before their last match as well, centrally contracted Australian players were allowed to play an IPL 2022 match after April 5.

While Bangalore have included Maxwell, his Australian teammate Josh Hazlewood will continue to sit out as the team management has refrained from tinkering with their bowling attack.

A primary reason why RCB wouldn’t want to bench their overseas pacer in David Willey is his ability to contribute with the bat in hand. Meanwhile, Hazlewood would be waiting for an RCB debut after representing Chennai Super Kings in the last two seasons.

As far as Indians are concerned, they have included a couple of debutants in all-rounder Ramandeep Singh and pacer Jaydev Unadkat for the overseas pair of Daniel Sams and Tymal Mills.