Rajasthan Royals appoint Cassell as new fast bowling coach

Rajasthan Royals on Thursday appointed former Australian first-class cricketer Rob Cassell as their new fast bowling coach for the upcoming Indian Premier League. Cassell has had success of working with, and developing fast bowlers during his previous coaching and development roles at South Australia and Ireland men's cricket team. The Australian, who represented his country at the 2002 U-19 World Cup in New Zealand but never played for the senior team, played a key role in developing the likes of Kane Richardson and Joe Mennie for the Redbacks.

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Rajasthan Royals appoint Cassell 

Since moving to Ireland, Cassell has helped form a quality bowling line-up with the Irish team, including the likes of Tim Murtagh and Boyd Rankin. 

"We are delighted to have Rob Cassell on board as the new fast bowling coach. We have a great relationship from our days at Victoria together," Royals' head coach, Andrew McDonald.

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"He is someone who has done the hard yards as a fast bowling coach in his career to date. His pure focus is coaching and under his guidance, several fast bowlers have come through the ranks and succeeded at the top level.

"His eye for execution and innovation in the game is something that we're looking to utilise here at the Royals. His varied experience will hopefully prove to be instrumental for our bowling line-up," added McDonald.

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Cassell has also been involved in bringing about innovation in modern fast bowling with his app "WicketsApp", which he introduced in order to help bowlers execute their plans better.  "The Royals have a great fast bowling set-up with a good mix of Indian and foreign pacers, all of whom bring a lot of quality and potential," said Cassell, who has played first-class cricket for Victorian Bushrangers and South Australian Redbacks. "I have been following the Royals from afar for quite some time, and I think this is a dynamic, exciting and highly competitive fast bowling line up. I am therefore really excited to chip in with my ideas and help maximise this team's abilities." Steffan Jones, who worked with the Royals in the fast bowling coaching capacity last year, will continue to work with the franchise, but now as a development coach during the off-season. 

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