Hope Jasprit Bumrah’s 1st ball goes for 4 or 6: RCB’s Tim David

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Tim David has revealed the team’s plans to tackle Mumbai Indians’ (MI) pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who will return to cricket after a long injury layoff, in IPL 2025 on Monday evening (April 7).

Also read: Bumrah returns, bowls in MI nets

Bumrah bowled in MI’s nets at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday on the eve of their match against RCB. This will be Bumrah’s first competitive match since January when had a back issue during the India-Australia fifth Test in Sydney.

David's tactics against Bumrah

Ahead of the match, David, a former MI player, said he is looking forward to facing Bumrah.

Also read: MI vs RCB match preview

“I'll just try and get my toes out of the way as he's got a pretty lethal yorker. He's a brilliant bowler. And when you put in big performances against the best teams, against the best players, they're the best feelings you get as a player. So you want to be challenged by the best, and I'm looking forward to that,” David said.

He hoped that whoever is batting against Bumrah would hit his first delivery for a four or a six. “If we're going to go deep in this tournament, we need to beat the best teams, we need to beat the best players. So you know, hopefully Boom (Bumrah’s nickname) bowls the ball in the first over tomorrow night, and the first ball goes for four or six from whoever's batting for us,” he said.

'Great start for us'

"You know, that'll be a statement, and it'll be great to have him back playing the tournament because the game is better with him in it,” he added.

Talking about RCB’s results so far in IPL 2025, David said, “It’s been a great start for us, two big wins on the road against KKR and Chennai, they’ve been traditionally tough places, those teams are strong in their home conditions, so that's a brilliant start for us. In the last game, we lost early wickets, that happens, it's going to be tough to win games given the quality of this tournament if you're four down early, but I don't see many times in the season with the quality of our batting line-up that that's going to happen.”

RCB are currently second in the IPL 2025 points table with two wins from three games. MI are eighth with one victory from four outings.