Ranchi: Harshal Patel, who produced a stellar performance with the ball on his international debut to guide India to a 7-wicket win over New Zealand, claimed himself to be “a silent observer” of the ex-Proteas cricketer. Patel revealed that De Villiers has had a massive impact on the fast bowler’s career.
Harshal’s debut coincided with de Villiers announcing his retirement from all forms of cricket. Which brought an end to his decade long association with the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. De Villiers played 156 matches for RCB and scored 4,491 runs. He is the second all-time leading run-scorer in RCB behind Kohli.
“I think AB has had a massive impact on my career. I have always been a silent observer of him,” Harshal said after winning the Player of the match award.
The 30-year-old fast bowler was included in the Indian playing XI on Friday after fellow pacer Mohammad Siraj suffered a split webbing during the first T20I. Harshal, who won the Purple cap last season in IPL, played alongside De Villiers in the RCB and got the opportunity to pick his brains.
“Recently when we were starting our campaign in the UAE I asked him, ‘How do I reduce my big overs? I have bowled 12-15 even 20-run overs in the IPL so how should I reduce those?”
“He told me, ‘When a batsman hits your good delivery, you shouldn’t change that. You should constantly force the batsman to hit your good deliveries only. If you get hit once on a good delivery then if you change it, the batsman is already expecting that.’ That is something that stayed with me throughout the second leg of IPL and will stay with me throughout my career,” Patel added.
