How Project RCB finally came to fruition

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Ahmedabad: A little past midnight on Tuesday, before the party got wilder, Andy Flower was in a state of contentment, discussing the final triumph over Punjab Kings with the media, with the glittering IPL trophy placed next to him.
Cast your mind back to the November auction in Jeddah, where each team had to rebuild a squad for the future. For Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), with all their fanfare, a devoted fan base and Virat Kohli's unmatched appeal, it had been far too long to have remained trophyless.
During his playing days for Zimbabwe, Flower was a world-class batter, his tactics ahead of time. As coach, Flower had won every short format trophy he had coached in – the T20 World Cup, The Hundred, ILT20 and PSL. But to win IPL was a personal challenge for someone with his coaching acumen. From his experience at Lucknow Super Giants and with RCB last season, Flower knew that to win IPL he had to get the auction strategy right.
Before entering the auction room, RCB took the critical call to retain only three players – Kohli, a no-brainer because of his other-worldly importance, Rajat Patidar, who would go on to become the captain, and Yash Dayal, a leading Indian left-arm seamer who could swing the new ball.
Once the retention calls were made, the foundation of the auction strategy became the analyst's job. RCB analyst Freddie Wilde, who until recently worked with the England team, had interestingly written a chapter in his book on T20 evolution titled 'Why RCB lose'. Wilde underlined how RCB's overreliance on expensive batting stars, the weak links in bowling and the lack of a solid Indian core hurt their chances. He would surely have pitched in to correct the past mistakes.
'I know after the first day of the auction we were copping a little bit of flak. People thought we were investing our money rather than spending it,' said Flower. 'But it meant we had money to then spend on value and we got guys like Bhuvi, Krunal, Tim David, Romario Shepherd. Suyash Sharma, our little leg spinner, has done really well.'
Flower was assisted by Mo Bobat, who had previously worked as performance director with English cricket during Eoin Morgan's captaincy years. 'He's got a great brain, he's a good strategist, so I've got tons of respect for him,' he said. 'Part of Mo's philosophy was to distribute the value a little more equitably, rather than spending too much on big-name batsmen, who are of course very fine players, but the importance of a good bowling attack was acknowledged absolutely adamantly right at the start, before the auction, and we worked towards that.'
In Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, RCB had pacers with the most contrasting skill sets. The Australian with his expertise in bowling hard lengths, and the Indian who bowled full to swing the ball at the start and could kill matches with his death overs expertise. Bhuvi was recommended by Dinesh Karthik, ex-RCB finisher and a new addition to the coaching staff. In a mock-auction video, Karthik called Bhuvi 'still the best T20 bowler India has after Jasprit Bumrah'.
Karthik didn't miss by much. Only Prasidh Krishna (GT-25 wickets) and Arshdeep Singh (PBKS-21 wickets) took more wickets than Bhuvi (17) among Indian pacers, other than Bumrah (18). Bhuvi held his nerve bowling the crunch overs in the final. Arshdeep always going to be an expensive buy – PBKS retained him for ₹18 crore – and RCB went with Dayal (retained for ₹5 crore).
Other than his grasp of modern T20 tactics, Karthik has a flair for coaching. Roping him in also addressed the need to add an Indian expert.
'Having that Indian insight and knowledge in our coaching staff has been really important for this campaign,' said Flower. 'And DK as a mentor and batting specialist has been brilliant. It's quite a transition to make from playing to coaching, and he's done it amazingly well. It's very obvious that he's had an impact, certainly on the batting group, within the leadership of the management group, and the coaching group, and with the wider team.'
Karthik's influence on Jitesh Sharma was the most visible. After a middle overs slowdown in the final, it was Jitesh who scooped the tall Kyle Jamieson over the wicketkeeper's head and smashed him over his head for sixes in the same over. Jitesh's new-found belief, to improvise from just relying on power strokes in front of the wicket, has been due to Karthik's mentoring.
In Wilde's book, Brendon McCullum says that personal relationships are easier to forge in international cricket. 'You know when you go over the wall they come with you,' the England coach says.
To win such loyalty in franchise cricket can be challenging, but the kindred spirit shone through among RCB's class of 2025.
Hazlewood (22 wkts) flew back to honour his contract after the week-long stoppage of IPL because of the war, so close to the World Test Championship final. Having left home for the birth of his child, England's Phil Salt returned to Ahmedabad in the wee hours of Tuesday to play in the final.