The Indian Captain Virat Kohli has been leading the Royal Challengers Bangalore since seven seasons of IPL and the team’s newly-appointed Director of Cricket Mike Hesson refused to make any change in the captaincy for the under-performing franchise in the next IPL 2020 edition.
The RCB has not won the IPL title in any of the seasons despite having stars like Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle in the team. Hesson was questioned on Kohli controlling the team and change in captaincy for the upcoming seasons.
“We don’t have that perception that Virat controls things. But maybe he has had his learnings from the past (mistakes) while moving forward. There has been no question mark over Virat’s captaincy during the last couple of weeks (of discussions),” – Hesson clarified.
“We have been very much aligned and he has been more than happy to take our advice from our experience,” – he added.
The recruitment in the RCB has come under a lot of criticism but this time Hesson assured that they are looking at specific players and not lots of options.
“There will be a big focus on recruitment. Once auction gets completed, the work starts then, not a week before the tournament starts. We would have clarity in roles that players need to perform,” – he said.
Hesson told that the players will have a clear role and the preparation will be started once the auction gets over. He further added that there are certain players they would be looking at during the Mushtaq Ali or Vijay Hazare Trophy.
“During Vijay Hazare and Mushtaq Ali Trophy, we would like to see players we want to fit in. It’s more about finding out how players build context around performance, conditions and pressure situations,” – he said.
Hesson said most importantly that the team needs to consider consistent performances and should go with a precise evaluation before selecting players.
“Form is a factor but we need to be more holistic in terms of how we talent scout. We look at the four-year period as then they are ready to deliver when put under the pump. It doesn’t happen after one good season,” – he said.
