Is this him rising to meet the demands of the IPL? Or just a slap on his detractors’ faces? Jaffer is not telling.

In his last home match against Chennai Super Kings, his improvised scoop wide of the wicketkeeper that brought up his fifty surprised many. Even his off-the-toes flicks into the stands raised eyebrows.

He still doesn’t look the perfect T20 cricket (and thank god for that, some purists might say) but his shots have put to rest any doubts about his ability to score quickly.

And the nets today, there were enough evidence of the new Jaffer, who is now an integral part of the Bangalore Royal Challengers team.

The Jaffer effect seems to be slowly rubbing off on some of his other classical team mates. Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis are also starting to find their feet in the shortest format — in the last match against the Delhi Daredevils, Dravid scored a 30-ball 38 while Kallis got 54 off 44 balls.

Taking charge

In the absence of Ross Taylor, their only explosive batsman so far, the three will now have to take the lead more often. Taylor is likely to be replaced by Misabh-ul-Haq, a known Twenty20 expert, for the match against the Deccan Chargers on Saturday.

“We need a victory to get our confidence back. We’re conceding a few big overs and while batting we are not getting those big overs. Anil (Kumble) will play tomorrow in place of Sunil Joshi. Hopefully that will help us to restrict batsmen,” Dravid told reporters.

Bangalore can, however, take heart from the fact that the Chargers also have shown a similar pattern in the tournament. Both the sides have lost four games out of five and their solitary victories came against the Mumbai Indians.