Ahmedabad, June 1 (IANS) With Royal Challengers Bengaluru winning their second successive IPL title with a five-wicket victory over Gujarat Titans, the back-to-back wins are not the product of fortune, but of deliberate design, meticulous auction strategy and a dressing room culture being rock-solid in nature.
For years, RCB were always regarded as a franchise that had a lot of stars, but were hugely imbalanced – batting always got the big money, with bowling being their perennial weak link. But after Andy Flower and Mo Bobat took over as head coach and Director of Cricket respectively, RCB began to have a strong, well-balanced unit which is evident in their back-to-back IPL wins delighting franchise T20 cricket’s most passionate fan base.
“I suppose when Andy and I first joined the franchise and we obviously had a first year that was a season of two halves and pretty challenging. Then we had the benefit of a mega auction and a bit of a reset, having learned some really strong lessons in the year before. The opportunity also to introduce Rajat as a new captain, which felt like a blank slate for us.
“At that point, I probably looked at this cycle and having come through a really good auction, we were very ambitious and optimistic about what we could do with this squad. I never came here or felt like we wouldn’t achieve the elusive first trophy. I know that many teams had tried and many management teams and players had tried over lots of years to try and win that first trophy. I never really doubted that we would do that.
“I suppose I always had it in my mind that once we won that first one, we needed to not settle for that as being what we’ve come here to do or what we’re all getting together to do, because like any sports team, you want to have almost like a bit of an infinite goal that you’re just always striving towards achieving something that constantly inspires your fans,” said Bobat in the virtual press conference organised by RCB on Monday.
On strategy, Bobat was equally emphatic, revealing that a top-two finish in the group stage was always the north star. “So, how has it been different? Well, last year through the season, as we built our confidence, it felt like something we had to achieve and get done and almost tick off that first milestone, whereas this year has felt quite different. From the moment we finished last season, we’ve tried to push people to be ambitious about going again.
“There’s been probably a deeper confidence amongst the player group this year and probably us as well as a management group around what the players are capable of, which obviously comes from success. Across both seasons, I’ve probably been personally quite keen and fixed on trying to achieve top two, because I think the 14 game group stage is quite a gruelling campaign.
“If you can put yourself in a position to finish top two, I think everybody knows historically what that means for your chances. So I guess part of my role is setting that bigger picture ambition and having something on the horizon that everyone’s working towards. Andy is excellent at getting people to focus on what’s coming in front of us and the game and the game ahead because it’s certainly one of the things that I think he did brilliantly,” he added.
Among the critical changes that RCB have made to the make-up of the squad over the last two auctions is going in search of proven, experienced players rather than taking a punt at unknowns. It meant they had a compact squad at their disposal.
“I don’t know whether you can win a competition at the auction. I think you can probably lose one at the auction. It’s quite hard to undo things that you then either regret or don’t like about your team structure, or even personnel, once you’ve got through your first mega auction, and then you’re only dealing with mini auctions in the subsequent years.
“So I would probably say, in my still fairly limited experience, that I’m not sure you win a competition at the auction, but you can certainly lose one there. Then it gets quite difficult in the mini auction years. You’re right it’s funny – when we finished our mega auction, I think we were ranked second bottom for the quality of the squad by quite a lot of broadcasters and a lot of experts, and many people had us to finish last.
“That was certainly nothing that affected our thought process or psychology. We were clear on what we were trying to build as a squad in terms of team structure. We were quite clear on the attributes and characteristics that we wanted from players. That’s a combination of skill and character. Both of those things are really important and we got pretty much everything we wanted and more at the auction.
“So we came out of that auction very happy, like most teams tend to do after an auction, but pretty confident that we could do the things that we wanted to do. It’s obvious when anyone looks at our squad that we’ve massively valued experience across key roles. Andy mentioned some of the names earlier, and having the likes of Virat and Rajat as retentions was a really good start,” he recalled.
The franchise’s emphasis on battle-hardened experience was a conscious and calculated call. “But then adding players of the calibre of Phil Salt, Tim David, Bhuvi, Hazlewood, Krunal – these are battle-hardened men, and that’s quite important, I think, in a competition as demanding as the IPL – the games come thick and fast. You’ve got to be able to move on from defeats quite quickly, and you need guys that are really calm under pressure.
“I once heard a phrase used about another elite sportsman that always stuck with me, that some of the best sportsmen, the pressure moments, find them, if that makes sense. We’ve got quite a few players where the pressure moments gravitate towards them. They seem to be in the middle when these things are happening.
“Yesterday, our bowling was a great example of that. Bhuvi and Hazlewood started brilliantly, Krunal doing his thing. Great contributions from others, of course. Both Duffy and Rasikh were obviously excellent. The pressure always finds Virat. He finds a way to be in the thick of things when the game’s on the line.
“That’s what champion players do. We valued all of those things when we put our squad together. Before we played our first game or bowled our first ball, we were confident that we had a squad that could be competitive. As we described, the confidence builds through the season and a huge amount goes into auction prep.
“You’ve probably seen some of our auction videos and seen some of the detail that we go into. As I said, I don’t think you win the competition at the auction, but it can make a really big difference. Once you’ve got that squad together, you’ve still got to get the togetherness going. You’ve still got to get them to deliver on their roles and create an environment where they can really go and showcase their strengths. Obviously, a lot of that goes down to the changing room environment that Rajat and Andy have built and created.”
Flower also threw light on RCB’s coaching and scouting infrastructure – specifically on their Indian coaches – Dinesh Karthik (batting coach and mentor), Omkar Salvi (bowling coach), and Malolan Rangarajan (the spin bowling coach and talent identification head, apart from being WPL head coach), whose contributions he described as indispensable to the title success.
“Well, a couple of things there. Firstly, Mo has set up a scouting system here at RCB that is still in its growth, in its initial phases of growth really. We had the scouts with us at the game last night. They were watching with their families. They came to the after party here at the hotel and it was great to see them all there and that is an important part of what we do in preparation.
“It is really important to get the best people in the room and we have got a really nice group of scouts. When I say nice, they are guys we trust their cricket opinions. We trust that they are doing their due diligence and they are good guys to have in the system. So Malolan has been with RCB for a number of years and has also been instrumental in setting up that scouting system with Mo.
“So we trust that and we are going to build on that. The Indian coaches that we have got on our books have been absolutely crucial to the success that we have had so far. Omkar Salvi is one of the nicest men I have ever met and he has been great for us for a couple of seasons. He is an experienced head coach, a very good observer and gives me his very clear opinions when I ask for them.
“I think he is a bowling coach that the bowlers like working with and trust. So those are all amazing qualities for us to have amongst our coaching staff. Malolan plays a more general role. He does specifically coach the spinners and I know that KP and Suyash trust him completely. But he also plays a wider role not only on the scouting but certainly in our auction prep.
“Also he is a smart guy and he knows the game. He has also head coached before and having his brain for us to access is really important to our decision making processes. DK is a different kettle of fish altogether – full of energy, ideas and he is a great energy to have around.
“He is also a very recent and successful IPL and international cricketer. So he adds something completely different to our group – that very creative, fun energy. He is always great company and challenging us with a million and one different ideas. So he has been integral to any success that we have had to be quite frank.
“His energy for the batting group has been unquenchable and I have enjoyed watching him work with our batting group. I know that he has earned the trust of even guys like Virat. So he has done an amazing job for us and to have those three Indian coaches on our books, I think we are very fortunate in that regard and without their influence, I am sure we would not be sitting quite in the same position that we are this morning,” he concluded.
–IANS
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