IPL Auction 2023: Everything you need to know about Reece Topley

They say batters win you matches while bowlers win you tournament. This maxim stands very true when it comes to the ever-demanding format of T20 cricket. Talking about bowlers, RCB landed a big name in international cricket in the form of Reece Topley for the upcoming 2023 IPL season.

Topley has always been a revered moniker in the fast-bowling union of the world with a toe-crushing yorker that has proven to be a nightmare for the batters. However, the big man from England has also had some serious injury scares that took out a chunk of his international career.

Towering at 6 feet 7 inches, Topley started hogging the limelight at the early age of 15 in 2009 when he was a net bowler for England. Dishing out those hard lengths in the nets, he got hit on his head by a fierce drive from one of his favourite cricketers, Kevin Pietersen for which he needed quite a few stitches.

Post that he became the crux of all cricketing deliberations when he claimed 14 wickets in his first three matches for Essex that included two fifers in the first two games against Kent and Middlesex. However, cricket took a backseat as he had to return to the Royal Hospital School in Suffolk to revise for his summer exams.

Topley started making further headlines when he went onto claim 19 wickets in the U-19 World Cup in Australia in 2012, the highest of the tournament while being called for the English side even before turning 19 to challenge the might of the Aussies Down Under.

In 2013, he went on to bag a staggering 80 wickets across all formats of the game for Essex and was selected for England’s Performance Programme trip to Australia. Unfortunately, a back injury against Sri Lanka forced him out before he could take part in the necessary lessons in the lush yet inimical greens of Australia.

Things were coming pretty slick for the towering English man before he fractured his bowling arm while trying to fend off a bumper from Boyd Rankin. Despite recovering from the fracture, he had to sit back for quite a while after sustaining a stress fracture injury in the back in August 2017 that made the cricketing arcade a far-fetched dream for the lanky meteor who was leaving a trail of bodies in his wake even a year back.

Eventually, it was Sussex who chose to gamble for the big man in 2018 and in due time, he started showing signs of promise and eventually returned to international cricket where he was quite a significant pick for England against India as the two powerhouses of the shortest format of the game were indulged in a seraphic three-match series earlier in this year.

Topley is known for his swing and his flair to move the ball either ways which makes it pretty hard for the batters to pick. He can angle the ball in sharply from around the wicket while taking it away from the batter, coming over the wicket. He has some decent pace up his sleeve as he clocks 140 plus almost regularly.

Given his versatility with the ball in his hands, backed by his impressive figures of 168 T20 wickets from 131 games at a strike rate of 16 and an economy rate of 8.22, Reece Topley can be a  major game-changer come the summer of 2023.