Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) fats bowler, Harshal Patel was the pick of the bowlers for his team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 opening game against Mumbai Indians as he claimed his maiden five-wicket haul in IPL. The uncapped pacer claimed the wickets of Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, and Marco Jansen to dismantle Mumbai Indians’ batting which helped his team to restrict the defending champions to 159 for 9.

Patel missed his hat-trick in the final over in Mumbai’s innings but became the first bowler in the history of IPL to take a 5-wicket haul against the 5-time IPL champions. Skipper Virat Kohli said that Patel will become a consistent bowler for them in the death overs and the pacer is all up for the role.

ALSO READ: Umesh Yadav Grabs A One-handed Stunner During Practice Session

In a virtual media interaction on Tuesday, Harshal Patel said, “I’ve always believed that my primary role is making a positive impact for my team. If the captain is confident enough to put me in those important situations, I look at it as a privilege and it is something that I look forward to keeping doing for a long time. And I’m happy that I’m being trusted with the role.”

About team management starting to trust uncapped Indian fast bowler with the death overs role is something that Harshal Patel believes is going to become a positive trend in the cash-rich T20 league.

ALSO READ: Ravindra Jadeja Forcefully Demands MS Dhoni’s Wicket During Practice

Describing the same, Harshal said, “Most of the teams, their management, have started looking at how the bowlers are doing in practice games, in training, how good they are at their execution regardless of what their stature is. I think it’s a good trend that people are starting o realize that even the uncapped bowlers are good enough to take responsibility for death bowling. I think we’ll see more of this going forward.”