Josh Hazlewood Wants RCB's Batters To Step Up At Home: 'Our Top 5 Need To...'

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have suffered three losses in their first seven games of IPL 2025, and each of the three losses have come at their home turf at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, which has proven to be a curse for the Rajat Patidar-led side.

Heavy rains in Bengaluru turned the clash against Punjab Kings into a 14-over contest, but that did not make a difference as RCB ended up getting pummelled, with Punjab first restricting them to 95 before chasing the target down with 11 balls to spare.

Josh Hazlewood (3/14) was RCB’s best bowler on the night, but he believes it’s up to the side’s batters, particularly the top six, to help them start winning matches at home. 

“I know in the first two games we lost here, it was a batter on the other team going big and getting a partnership and scoring big late in the game. So if we can have our Top 5 or 6 doing the batting for the 20 overs, I think that'll go a long way to helping us win,” Hazlewood said at the press conference after the game. 

Hazlewood said that RCB have been slow to learn from their losses at Chinnaswamy. He reckoned that the side has made the same mistakes, particularly up front with the bat in hand. In three games at the Chinnaswamy, the Patidar-led side have lost a whopping nine wickets inside the first six overs, meaning they’ve had to play catch-up more often than not.

“It's obviously three in a row now we've lost at home. It's just we've probably been a bit slow on the learnings from the first two games and didn't put that into practice as well as we could have today, probably in particular in those first probably six to eight overs obviously with the score the way it was,” Hazlewood said.

“So again, we'll dive into this game, probably more so when we get back to Bangalore and really go through in detail and with a fine-tooth comb and come up with a few ideas of where we can learn and improve. I think the bowling definitely improved from the last two outings. So, sort of we're slowly getting there, but probably not quick enough,” the speedster added.

Speaking of the Chinnaswamy surface at IPL 2025, which has been more bowler-friendly than batter-friendly, the Australian speedster said, “It’s not been a typical Chinnaswamy wicket. Obviously, the bounce has always been there, but in past years it's probably been more consistent. I find if you really hit the wicket hard on that 6 to 8 metres, it's quite tough to bat, and we've found that.”

RCB have a day off before taking on Punjab Kings in Mullanpur on April 20 (Sunday).