Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Yash Dayal proved his doubters wrong, producing an instrumental performance as the team defeated Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Dayal, who joined RCB after being released by Gujarat Titans, was a player who made headlines last season following the battering he received from Kolkata Knight Riders' Rinku Singh. In a famous episode, Rinku hit Yash for 5 consecutive sixes in the final over of the game to win the contest for the Knight Riders. Now with RCB, Dayal opened up on that game which still remains fresh in his head.
In a chat with RCB teammate Mohammed Siraj, Dayal revealed that he was asked not to go on social media after the match between GT and KKR but he defied that instruction.
"After GT v KKR game, I was asked not to see the social media but I still went on & I felt hurt about what people think of me, hurts more when they don't realise what background I come from & play cricket. I fell sick in a 2-3 days. I returned to cricket after recovering and tried to focus on the match.
"In hindsight, I know I was not the first person who has faced this situation so I worked on the process rather than the outside noise," he said in the video shared by IPL.
Dayal was signed by RCB in the IPL 2024 auction for a fee of INR 5 crore. In the two matches that the left-arm pacer has played so far, he has looked like a decent signing by the franchise, producing figures of 1/28 (3 overs) and 1/23 (4 overs) against CSK and PBKS respectively.
Still not a finished product, it's Dayal's potential that excites the RCB bosses the most. The pacer would be keen to even better his fine start to the 2024 season with his new franchise.