When Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) signed Rasikh Salam for INR 6 crore ahead of IPL 2025, it felt like a punt on potential.
With Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal as their three frontline pacers, Rasikh played just two games during their title-winning run, picking up a solitary wicket. But the franchise wasn’t looking at immediate returns. There was a belief that he was a bowler worth investing in, but he needed structure.
And so, ‘Project Rasikh’ took form during the off-season.
A cursory glance at Rasikh’s career until 2025 gave the team management some markers. The one that stood out glaringly was the trend of in-today, out-tomorrow that played itself fairly regularly in Jammu & Kashmir. Upon Krunal Pandya’s recommendation, Rasikh switched states and moved to Baroda.
The move was to maximise opportunities and develop his all-round game as a professional who didn’t have to worry about selection headaches or proving himself game after game across formats.
It freed him enough to start thinking like a leader, guiding younger bowlers and sharpening his tactical awareness. This is something Jitesh Sharma, RCB’s vice-captain who also moved to Baroda along with Rasikh to further his game, realised.
“The skills you’ve seen have always been there,” Jitesh said after Rasikh’s 4 for 24 played a key role in RCB’s fourth win in five games. “He’s only learnt to use them better, which you do when you get a good coach, mentor, and a good atmosphere. You understand when to use something, whether it’s needed or not.
“He worked a lot on yorkers and slower ones. He knew the IPL was around the corner. You have to be perfect, play with a certain intensity. Errors will be there, so you practise so much that it becomes muscle memory. That’s what helps you perform under pressure.”
Jitesh was spot on. The muscle memory had kicked in long before Wednesday night. There were glimpses of it at the Wankhede earlier in the week. At the Chinnaswamy, there was validation that we were watching a bowler operating at a level of tactical clarity he hadn’t shown before.
It didn’t begin perfectly. Rasikh’s third ball in the powerplay was bashed over mid-on for six by Aiden Markram. The Rasikh of old might have shied away from the change-up. Here, he doubled down, bowling two back-to-back slower deliveries to Markram and Mitchell Marsh. And the awareness came from quickly reading the surface.
Though this was the same surface where RCB had piled up 250 against Chennai Super Kings, it was drier and devoid of grass on Wednesday, making the ball skid lesser. So pace-off was going to be key.
When Rasikh burst through in 2018-19, he was predominantly a swing bowler. Over time, he realised the need for reinvention. Watching Harshal Patel’s 2021 season, where he unleashed those dipping slower balls and cutters with unerring accuracy, left a lasting impression.
He began adding those deliveries to his game in earnest around 2022-23, particularly during match simulation against Rishabh Pant at the NCA, where he trained during the latter’s comeback from a career-threatening accident.
In trying to win those small battles, Rasikh stumbled onto something bigger. Pant was impressed enough to recommend him to Delhi Capitals. Rasikh showed glimpses in IPL 2024, but when he wasn’t retained ahead of the mega-auction, RCB picked him, having seen how effective he can be as a third seamer.
At the Chinnaswamy on Wednesday, Rasikh proved he was all that and more. Off the last ball of his first over came a massive slice of luck when Markram got a leading edge to a full toss on leg-stump. A 10-run over had fetched a wicket, but more importantly, it gave Rasikh the kind of confidence he thrives on.
If the first over gave him the belief, his second validated everything he’d worked towards in the off-season. And he was nailing them without worrying about the reputation of the batters he was up against – two of the cleanest and biggest six-hitters in Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran.
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It helped that Josh Hazlewood sustained the pressure on LSG, operating on a probing, Test-match length that forces risk without offering batters a release. Pooran tried to break free and ended up chopping on for 1 off 7.
Together, Hazlewood and Rasikh dominated the powerplay, consigning LSG to their lowest score in that phase this season. It wasn’t just about wickets or economy; it was about tempo, about denying the opposition even an inkling of momentum. Two overs in, with figures of 1 for 12, Rasikh had already left his stamp on proceedings.
The hard work was done there, but the proof of the pudding came later at the death. When he returned for his third, in the 16th, he had to contend with two set batters in Mukul Choudhary and Ayush Badoni.
And despite being steered behind square off a slower ball, he had the conviction to stick to his strengths and got Badoni off the final ball. The only difference was a subtle change in length; the boundary ball was shorter, the wicket ball was a lot closer to the stumps and fuller, forcing a slash that was well pouched by Jitesh.
And in the final over, Rasikh nailed his yorker to rip out Choudhary’s middle and leg stumps a ball after a slower length ball had been dispatched. It was no longer about being predictable, but finding different options to try and outsmart the batter. Avesh Khan, too, had his stumps ripped out by another yorker to end the innings.
Rasikh had finished with his best IPL figures of 4 for 24. Of them, 10 were slower deliveries and 14 pace-on – a fine concoction on a surface that was his ally on the night. More than the distribution, his smarts and awareness of when to use them stood out.
It took RCB three games to give Rasikh an opportunity, after they’d initially started with Abhinandan Singh. After compelling back-to-back efforts in victories, it’s hard to see him sitting on the bench in what could yet be a career-defining season.
