Jacob Bethell and Lungi Ngidi will not be available for the final round.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will be pleased to have most overseas players back after IPL 2025 resumes. However, a few of them will leave before the playoffs, and RCB will need fresh players for the next round.
Jacob Bethell and Lungi Ngidi will not be available for the final round. While Bethell has to feature in the ODI series against England, coinciding with the IPL playoffs, Ngidi will return to South Africa to prepare for the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Unfortunately for them, several quality players have already been taken by various teams, so the player pool is limited. RCB will be forced to settle with inexperienced or out-of-flavour players for the crunch part of the tournament.
We look at five players RCB can bring as a replacement for Bethell and Ngidi in IPL 2025.
Leus du Plooy isn’t praised enough for his expertise as a batter despite doing well almost everywhere. He will be an ideal replacement for Bethell, given the role he plays.
Like Bethell, Plooy also brings the LHB dimension and can bowl useful left-arm spin with the ball. He is powerful against pacers and can score quickly right from the start.
Plooy has plenty of experience playing in various T20 leagues, including SA20, The Hundred, Pakistan Super League (PSL), and International League T20 (ILT20). So, he understands how the franchise cricket works and can settle in quickly, even if he doesn’t have any IPL experience.
Michael Bracewell plays for Multan Sultans in PSL 2025, but his team can’t qualify for the semifinal round. Hence, Bracewell can be a replacement player since his PSL assignment will be over.
RCB lack a quality off-spin all-rounder, especially after Liam Livingstone was dropped. So, they need to fill this area, and a few available options are better than Bracewell.
He also has previous experience playing for RCB in IPL 2023, where he did reasonably well. Given that he is accurate with the ball and a capable batter in the lower order, Bracewell can provide the much-needed balance to the XI.
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If RCB don’t get Michael Bracewell, Mohammad Nabi is another option who can perform the same role. He is playing for the Karachi Kings, who will qualify for the next round, but PSL 2025 ends on May 25 and won’t coincide with the IPL 2025 playoffs.
Nabi is among the most accurate spinners in world cricket, who might not be a wicket-taker but can bowl tight spells. Further, he is also a powerful batter who can be flexible with his batting position.
Further, he has played for various teams in the IPL and knows the conditions well in India. While his expertise is on the wane, Nabi is still a quality operator with experience playing knockout matches.
Nathan Smith’s rise as a pacer has been massive in the last year. He is a genuine wicket-taker who can bowl at a good pace and be useful in the powerplay and middle overs.
He doesn’t have enough franchise cricket experience, but the Kiwi speedster has played reasonable T20 matches. Smith has 67 wickets at an average of 24.17 in 58 innings, including two four-wicket and a five-wicket haul.
He has had a fine start to his international career, but hasn’t played T20Is yet. It will be interesting to see whether RCB prefer an inexperienced pacer as a replacement.
Lance Morris, an out-and-out pace bowler, can be a brave pick to replace Lungi Ngidi. Morris is among the quickest bowlers in the world and can bowl hard lengths to cramp batters.
Morris has only played the Big Bash League in franchise cricket, but has done reasonably well. He has 40 wickets at 22.95 runs apiece in 35 innings, including a five-wicket haul.
Josh Hazlewood will reportedly be available for the playoffs and mostly bowl in the powerplay and death overs. So, RCB have enough new-ball bowlers and would want an enforcer who can bowl fiery spells in the middle overs.
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