How Rilee Rossouw is back in the IPL but can be sent back very early
It's been nearly a decade since Rossouw last played the IPL. What has enabled his comeback but can also possibly make it a very brief one?
In 2014, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) signed Rilee Rossouw as a replacement for Nic Maddinson after he was ruled out mid-season due to an injury.
And this time, he would finally get to play an IPL match.
For context, RCB had originally bought Rossouw 3 seasons back in 2011 for his base price of 30 lakh INR (approx. $36K USD today) but did not play a match. He was retained for 2012, but once more warmed the bench the entire season and was then released ahead of the 2013 auction.
He played only 3 matches and scored 39 runs across them in 2014, top scoring with 24 averaging 13 odd striking at 95.12, however he was once more retained by the franchise for 2015, this time playing only 2 matches.
In his first match, he was bowled out for a golden duck by Harbhajan Singh against the Mumbai Indians and then scored just 14 runs in his next match against the Chennai Super Kings, and was then once again released by RCB going into the 2016 auction.
After that, he was nowhere near to be seen in the IPL, until now that is.
In the 2023 mini auction, the Delhi Capitals bought Rossouw for 4.60 crore INR (approx. $557K USD) after locking horns with the Rajasthan Royals from his base price of 2 crore INR (approx. $242K USD)
But a lot has happened in his career leading up to this moment.
For instance, he signed a Kolpak deal with Hampshire on 5th January 2017, making him ineligible to represent South Africa and for the 3 seasons he represented them, Rossouw was their second-highest top scorer in the T20 Blast, second to his skipper James Vince
During this time, he was also playing in various other T20 leagues, one, in particular, being the Pakistan Super League (PSL), unarguably now a legend of the league.
What he could not become at RCB (that being become a pillar of the franchise along with Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, and AB de Villiers at the time), he became so for the PSL itself.
Yet ironically, Rossouw’s start to his journey in the PSL had the same beginning as his IPL journey did: signed as a replacement player.
He was signed to replace David Willey by the Quetta Gladiators in PSL2 (2017), and was their top run scorer in his debut season, scoring 255 runs across 9 matches averaging 42.50 striking at 123.18 with two fifties and a top score of 76, overall the 4th highest run scorer.
He wasn’t as prolific in the following season after being retained in the Diamond category, but the saying, “the third time’s the charm” turned out to be true for the Gladiators in the form of his third PSL season in 2019.
Rossouw was retained in the Gold category heading into PSL3 and in spite of a rather sedate season in 2018, he was still a pillar of the Gladiators’ batting lineup along with Shane Watson then and showed why playing in a back-to-back final against arch-rivals Peshawar Zalmi.
Electing to bowl first, Gladiators restricted Zalmi to just 138/8. In what was expected to be a relatively easy chase, there was an early inroad in Watson being dismissed for just 7 during the third over.
Rossouw came in to bat at #4 like he mostly had been for them and just helped smoothly streamline the chase with Ahmed Shehzad scoring 39 off 32 deliveries and hit the winning run to secure the Gladiators’ first and only PSL trophy to date.
Overall, he was the 10th-highest run scorer, scoring 295 runs across 12 matches averaging 32.77 striking at 135.94.
However, that winning run would turn out to be his final time scoring for the franchise, as ahead of the PSL5 draft, it was said that an agreement could not be reached upon Rossouw wanting to be retained in the Platinum category, and was subsequently released.
And that’s when Multan Sultans capitalized on it and drafted him in Platinum, and immediately reaped the benefits, smashing the fastest century in the history of the league at the time off 43 deliveries, striking at 227.27 smashing 10 fours and 6 sixes in the process.
Ironically, this record-breaking ton came against his former franchise, however his overall season and the one that followed in 2021 were both pretty quiet.
The Sultans won the 2021 season, and have qualified for back-to-back finals in the two seasons that followed, and Rossouw played an integral role in making this possible.
Last season, Rossouw was the 12th highest run scorer and overall the Sultans’ 4th highest with 275 runs averaging 39.28 striking at 167.68 with 3 fifties and a top score of 71 and in the most recently concluded eason this year, Rossouw was especially both prolific and record breaking.
Rossouw was their second highest run scorer this PSL8 and was overall the third highest, scoring 453 runs across 11 matches averaging 45.30 striking at 171.59, with 3 fifties and a century and a top score of 121.
His top score came against the Zalmi on the infamous roads of Rawalpindi complemented with very small boundaries, with the Sultans given a target of 243 to chase.
And Rossouw made it possible with five balls to spare. Five!
The 121 came off just 51 deliveries striking at 237.25, hitting 12 fours and 8 sixes and also broke his own record of the fastest PSL century by doing so two balls quicker than he did in 2020, before Usman Khan broke it the very next day off 36 deliveries.
And in the midst of establishing himself as a PSL legend, last year, he signed with Somerset as an overseas players for the T20 Blast after Kolpak was abolished due to one of the repercussions of Brexit, and quite literally, he had the time of his life at not just the Rawalpindi-esque conditions and dimensions of Taunton, but also at other venues.
Rossouw finished as the second highest run scorer of the season, coincidentally to his former skipper Vince, smashing 623 runs across 16 matches averaging 47.92 striking at 192.28, with 7 fifties and a top score of 93, singlehandedly helping Somerset qualify for Finals Day.
And CricViz data scientist Ben Jones highlighted that his Batting Impact numbers were the highest ever in a Blast season after the group stage, he was also ESPNCricinfo’s second Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the T20 Blast and Somerset’s second highest run scorer scored 216 runs fewe than Rossouw in Will Smeed, one of many testaments to just how dominant Rossouw was.
These performances helped him earn a recall to the Proteas squad for the first time in six years, in their tour of England and in only the second match of his comeback in national colors, Rossouw smashed a 55 ball-96 striking at 174.54 with 3 fours and 2 sixes.
The 96 was then followed with back-to-back centuries a few innings later, the first coming in South Africa’s tour of India right before the T20 World Cup in Australia in the third T20I at Indore, bludgeoning his maiden T20I century off 48 deliveries at a strike rate of 208.33 including 7 fours and 8 sixes to his name.
The second century came against Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup at Sydney, scoring 109 runs off 56 balls striking at 194.64 with 7 fours and 8 sixes yet again hit in the process, accounting for more than half of the Proteas’ team total.
So what has been the recipe to success, one that has enabled Rossouw to once again be a part of the IPL festivites?
Let’s take a look at his numbers since 2020 leading to the IPL auction and then categorize them
Fast bowling: 31.1 | 169.02
Medium-pace bowling: 33.84 | 167.71
Away-spin (OB, LWS): 45.8 | 131.60
In-spin (RWS, SLA): 33.41 | 175.87
The main takeaway from this is irrespective of the sample size (much bigger for T20 compared to T20I), what stays consistent is his ability to be very attacking against most bowling types barring offbreak, against whom while he does have a quite high average, the strike rate numbers show that he does look to be a lot more conservative than usual against them, highlighting a potential struggle against the ball turning away from him for IPL teams to capitalize on.
However, the small sample size of his T20I numbers does highlight something you’d have to look deep into his T20 numbers to sniff out, owing to the left-arm medium T20I numbers.
Redirecting back to the title of this article, this is something that can send him back very early in an innings this upcoming IPL season, that being his immense struggles against the new ball, which I dive into in this thread.
This is very easily something that could completely make or break his season, entirely dependent on how the batsmen that come ahead of him do.
And speaking of that, from an overseas quota perspective, while there is a high possiiblity of Rossouw starting, its very likely that it may not happen initially at least, as it should largely be expected that captain David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rovman Powell and Anrich Nortje will be the Capitals first choice overseas quartet.
However, like any other player, utilize their strengths correctly and you’ll get their best, maximum output most of the time, and as a current PSL legend, an all-time Somerset T20 overseas great and as a returning Protea who has already hit back-to-back T20I centuries, Rilee Rossouw can certainly testify to that.