Cliff Notes – Finisher Tim David is happy to be a spectator when RCB bat
- Tim David, a T20 finisher, has played 247 matches in five years, facing limited balls while maintaining high performance, including hitting five sixes from just 27 balls in IPL 2025.
- Despite a pay cut and reduced batting opportunities due to the Impact Player rule, David values his training and mentorship from T20 greats, focusing on mental preparation to avoid burnout.
Finisher Tim David is happy to be a spectator when RCB bat
CloseMatt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98Apr 9, 2025, 03:30 PM
“I watch a lot of cricket,” Tim David says with a smile – and he does not mean on TV. In the last five years, only Nicholas Pooran and Rashid Khan have played more T20 matches worldwide than David’s 247, but 27 batters have faced more balls. He is a specialist in one of the strangest positions in world sport: the T20 finisher.
David faces around ten balls per match; if everything goes to plan for his team, he does not face any.
“In most games I play in, I watch the first ten overs from the changing rooms, then five overs from the dugout,” he explains. His longest IPL innings lasted 24 balls – only 20% of a T20 innings. Unlike most players who fulfil his role, David has never bowled in the IPL either.
Yet his services remain in high demand. David has played T20s for 18 different teams and is paid handsomely for his work, even if the dynamics of last November’s auction left him with a 64% pay cut. Watching him bat for Royal Challengers Bengaluru over the last three weeks in IPL 2025, it is clear why teams value him highly: he has only faced 27 balls but has crunched five of them for six.
“It’s about managing expectations,” David says, sitting on the top floor of a Mumbai hotel. “When you’re batting in my role, you don’t get a go in every game.” The Impact Player rule exacerbates that in the IPL: “It marginalises my role. I’ve gone from batting No. 6 in other teams – and higher if you have a good start – to No. 7 or 8. I almost just bat in the last couple of overs.”
It means that David relies heavily on his training routine. “I’ve got to get a lot of volume in,” he says. “I don’t expect to get that in games, and you’ve got to be ready to take risks straightaway.” Thankfully, it is no hardship for him. “I love it. Training is so much fun: I get to go and hang out with my mates and have a hit for way too long.”
In India, David has worked closely with two of T20’s greatest finishers. He spent three years being mentored by Kieron Pollard at Mumbai Indians, whose imposing physique he shares. Now he is learning the softer skills of RCB’s Dinesh Karthik: “They are different styles of players and different people, but there’s a wealth of knowledge from both sides.
“But they can’t just tell you things and then you automatically do it. You have to go through it, own the mistakes yourself and come out the other side. It’s an interesting role that I play, but when you’re in a good headspace, it’s a lot easier, because you don’t judge yourself so harshly… Sometimes, the harder you try, the more frustrating it is.”
Twice already this season David has faced every ball of the 20th over. He has turned down singles to retain the strike, and on each occasion has won his battle with a death bowler: he hit Sam Curran for three sixes in a row, then went four, six, four against Prasidh Krishna. “It’s been nice to get those 15-plus [run] overs and add onto the scoreboard,” he says.
At 6ft 5in, David believes he can exert pressure on bowlers simply through his imposing physical presence. “That’s a massive part of it. It’s a super important part of my game. I’m supposed to be able to get mishits for six and reach balls that are hard to bowl, to then put pressure on bowlers. If I couldn’t do those things, I wouldn’t be playing these roles.
“We’ve chatted about it between ourselves as a batting group: if we feel like we have a read on a bowler, [we should] make it a big over. When you are relaxed in those situations, you realise you don’t have to hit every ball for six, because you’ve got six opportunities at that stage to make an impact.”
David keeps his bat face reasonably open, allowing him to get elevation when hitting yorkers. “The bounce is different in India, and the ball comes onto the bat differently too. A couple of matches ago, we were in Chennai – it’s basically as far as you can get from being at the WACA, where I grew up playing. But you have to find a way to make an impact.”
Beyond turning down singles, David has started turning down contracts. He spent the last five years taking up every opportunity to play T20 around the world, including playing for three different teams in a week in February. Now he is conscious of avoiding burnout and of ensuring he is “mentally prepared” to perform in an inherently volatile role.
“I’m playing ten months of the year, and I have to book tournaments off. When you’ve been on the road for three or four months, away from home comforts, you need to have a rest and refresh for the next one. I feel like I’m in a good space at the moment. I’ve improved so much. I’m a vastly better player now than I was when I first started.”
David will take a rare break from franchise cricket after the IPL, but hopes to play in Australia’s upcoming T20Is against West Indies and South Africa. At 29 he appears increasingly unlikely to ever play a first-class match: “I would love to be able to go and bat for a long period of time and score big scores. But I love playing T20, and I don’t have the time to do that [play first-class cricket] in my year.”
Life on the franchise circuit is far removed from David’s home in Cottesloe, the coastal Perth suburb. “I go to the beach every day, and I love it. Here, I’m staying in hotels for three months – and cricket is everywhere you look in India. The challenge is to stay fresh through a ten-week process. And then you’ve got to be ready to perform in the finals.
“There are so many eyes on each game in the IPL. It captures the nation: everyone is watching, everyone is supporting their team. It can be overbearing if you’re not in the right headspace. There are definitely challenges that people at home don’t see, but at the end of the day, our job is defined by how we perform – so they are entitled to their criticism.”
In fact, RCB have largely attracted praise this year, after three impressive away wins in their first four games. “I don’t think our top four is going to miss out very often, because they are such high-class players,” David says. Therein lies the unique challenge of his role: the better his team’s batting line-up performs, the more time he will spend watching them.