Bishnoi: Worked on 'perfecting my lengths' after difficult 2025

Bishnoi, who finished with 4 for 41 against GT and earned the Player-of-the-Match award, credited his turnaround to work on the "physical, technical and mental aspects" of his game

In the 11th over, the Gujarat Titans (GT) chase of 211 looked on track with a well-set B Sai Sudarsan at the crease and a host of big-hitters to come. Enter Ravi Bishnoi, who picked up three wickets in the next six balls he bowled across two overs, including that of Sai Sudharsan, to turn the game on its head and turn it the way of Rajasthan Royals. Bishnoi finished with 4 for 41, earning the Player-of-the-Match award, and credited his turnaround to work on the "physical, technical and mental aspects" of his game after a challenging IPL 2025.

Bishnoi has had a consistent run in the IPL, and in 2023 he finished as his former team Lucknow Super Giants' (LSG) highest wicket-taker with 16 wickets. But he endured a rough 2025, his worst IPL season, where he bagged only nine wickets in 11 games at an average of 44.55 and an economy of 10.83. LSG released Bishnoi before the IPL 2026 auction, and he was bought by RR for INR 7.20 crore.

"Last season was difficult," he said during the post-match presentation. "But I tried to stick to my processes. I had one weakness, if my length was wrong then I was getting hit for fours and sixes. That's what I was trying. I played a whole season of domestics and worked on perfecting my lengths. Hitting my lengths made it difficult for batters, when I was too full I got hit today too.RelatedTorture by yorker - Deshpande nails 'em in final over

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"Mental, technical and physical... all three. I've been putting the physical work too, in off-season, between games and in domestic."

Three of his four wickets on Saturday night were of left-handers and Bishnoi used his googlies and found precise lengths against them. Sai Sudharsan top-edged one to Tushar Deshpande with a googly and he also claimed Glenn Phillips with another clever googly, this time on a back-of-a-length offstump line. GT's chase faltered further as a misjudged full delivery on the pads had Washington Sundar hit one straight to deep midwicket.

With the dangerous Rahul Tewatia at the crease, Bishnoi nearly sealed the game with a back-of-a-length googly that forced a top edge from Tewatia that was safely pouched by the wicketkeeper. It was a dismissal he later called his favourite of the spell. The match went down to the wire, but RR held their nerve to defend 15 off 12 balls.

"My favourite wickets were all four but Rahul bhai's [Tewatia's] wicket towards the end was important since it came at that particular time," he said. "He is known to be a finisher. If he hadn't gone out then the game could've gone any direction."