Indian Premier League 2022: Lasith Malinga Reveals How He Got On Board As Rajasthan Royals Fast Bowling Coach

Former Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga has enjoyed a great run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the Mumbai Indians but he is now looking forward to a new role as he is essaying the role of fast-bowling coach of the Rajasthan Royals. The IPL 2022 will begin on March 26 but Rajasthan will play their first match on March 29 against the SunRisers Hyderabad. Reacting on joining the Royals, the 38-year-old said in an official release stated, "It is certainly a new thing for me to get into coaching and pass on my experience to the younger players. I have played this role before with Mumbai, and now I'm delighted to be working with Rajasthan Royals."

"It is a new place for me, but I'm enjoying my role so far working with such a talented group of bowlers."

“The first thing that always stayed with me was the color – pink. I always saw the team have good international and local players, and whenever I used to face them, it was tough. I think they were always very competitive, and could beat any team on their day," the former Sri Lanka stated further.

Having been associated with Mumbai for 13 seasons, Malinga also recalled how the move to Royals came about. 

“It was actually last year that Kumar (Sangakkara) asked me if I was interested. But with Covid and all the bubble restrictions, I didn't want to stay away from my family. But this year, having also worked with the Sri Lankan team, I felt I could use my experience and give back to the game that I love, by working with this group of players,” said IPL's highest wicket-taker.

The Sri Lankan legend also spoke about Royals' new pace attack. 

"I think we have a fantastic pace attack. You've got experienced overseas players like Boult and Coulter-Nile, with whom I've worked before. Then we've got genuine Indian fast bowlers in Prasidh and Saini, who have proven themselves at the highest level, and some new faces in Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen and Kuldip Yadav. In T20 cricket, I think little margins really matter, and I'm here to guide them to deliver their best in all situations,” stated Malinga.

Sharing his thoughts on what's the most important thing for a fast bowler to achieve success, Malinga said, “I think most of the times teams focus on analyzing the opposition and looking at their weaknesses. But in my experience, I think what works best is when you work on your strengths and bowl according to them. In T20, you only have to bowl 24 balls, which works in our favour but it's also important to trust your instincts as to which variations can work in which situations.”

“On the field, you only have a right hander and a left hander to prepare against, so when a bowler trains, it's important to just train according to that – to think there are just two batters – it doesn't matter what the name of the batsman is,” he added.

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell.

Topics mentioned in this article

Rajasthan Royals IPL 2022 Lasith Malinga Kumar Sangakkara Prasidh Krishna Cricket