Hesson reveals reason behind exclusion of Morris from RCB's first match

In the player's auction held in 2019, RCB had picked up Chris Morris for INR 10.75 crore.

Dubai: Cricket experts rose their eyebrows when Royal Challengers Bangalore excluded Chris Morris from their first game. He made way for countrymate Dale Styen in the playing XI. Now RCB's Director of Cricket Mike Hesson has revealed that Morris missed the match against SunRisers Hyderabad as he picked up a side strain during a practice session.

Hesson also said that the management will continue to monitor the Proteas all-rounder in the coming days.

"Chris Morris, unfortunately, picked up a side strain a few days ago, he would have played a huge role through the middle and death overs, his batting would have had a huge impact as well," said Hesson in a video posted on the official YouTube channel of RCB.

Chris Morris

"This does change the balance of our side, he is a three in one cricketer, he is not easy to replace and as a result, we had to change the structure of our side. Hopefully, Chris will come into consideration for selection in a game or two, we will continue to monitor him," he added.

In the player's auction held in 2019, RCB had picked up Chris Morris for INR 10.75 crore.

Dale Styen

RCB defeated SunRisers Hyderabad by 10 runs for their first victory in the tournament.

In the match against Hyderabad, Yuzvendra Chahal finished with figures of 3-18 and he got the crucial wickets of Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar.

SunRisers were 121/2 at one stage and were looking comfortable in their pursuit of 164. However, Yuzevndra Chahal and Navdeep Saini staged a stunning comeback for RCB and Hyderabad lost eight wickets for just 32 runs, losing the match by 10 runs.

Jonny Bairstow made 61 runs for Hyderabad while Manish Pandey scored 34 runs.

Earlier, for RCB, Devdutt Padikkal and AB de Villiers scored half-centuries to take the side's total to 163/5 in the allotted twenty overs.

The Virat Kohli-led side will now take on Kings XI Punjab on Thursday, September 24.