Post Delhi, Negi finds true form with Bangalore
The 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) did not go according to plan for Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Virat Kohli-led side has won just two of their 13 matches this season and with just one game remaining, it is clear they will end up with the wooden spoon for the first time in the history of the tournament.
However, there were some positives for RCB this season and the biggest among them was the performance of young allrounder Pawan Negi.
Negi into this season’s IPL under a lot of pressure. He started his IPL career with Chennai Super Kings in 2012 but it took him three years to secure a spot in the playing XI.
He had a good run in IPL 2015 with CSK and a 5/22 in the Champions League T20 final fetched him the man-of-thematch award and his team the title. That performance earned him a spot in the India squad for that year’s Asia Cup and he made his ODI debut against UAE.
The biggest moment of his career came in the IPL 2016 auction when he became the costliest pick among the Indian players with Delhi Daredevils paying Rs 8.5 crore.
However, Negi was not able to do justice to his price tag with an extremely disappointing run of just 57 runs and one wicket from eight matches.
Not surprisingly, he was released by at the end of the season. Most experts wrote him off at the start of the auction and when RCB paid R1 crore for him, it did raise a lot of eyebrows. But he proved his worth for his team in their very first match against Delhi Daredevils.
With DD needing 19 runs off the last over, Negi came to bowl. Negi ended up conceding just three runs and claimed two wickets to clinch the game for his team.
He followed it up with effective batting performances against Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Lions and he also provided great support to leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the bowling department.
The 24-year old was one of the few RCB players who performed consistently this season and, with 13 wickets in 11 matches, he is currently the second-highest wicket-taker for his team.
At the start of IPL 2017, most experts looked at Pawan Negi and saw a cricketer who crumbled under the pressure of the huge price tag.
However, Negi has shown glimpses of his old form this season and it cannot be refuted that he was truly one of the few silver linings in
RCB’s dark cloud of the season. Rising Pune Supergiant may not believe in MS Dhoni’s captaincy ability anymore, but former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting had no hesitance in picking the two World Cup-winning and two IPLtitle winning captain to lead his all-time IPL playing XI. Ponting’s IPL XI comprises of seven Indians and four overseas players. Ponting explained what made him chose Dhoni over Virat Kohli, who is also a part of his XI, as his team’s skipper and why he wants him to bat at No 6. “MS Dhoni is at No 6 and he’ll also be the captain of my side. He brings huge experience and whenever he’s at the crease... you’re always a chance of winning the game. I’ve seen him do it off his own bat on several occasions, so I’ll go with him as skipper, with the gloves and batting at No 6,” Ponting was