The relationship between RCB and the Chinnaswamy Stadium is peculiar. Although they have very partisan home support, the team’s performance there is unaffected by this. They have precisely 40 wins, 40 defeats, and 4 No Results going into the 17th season of the Indian Premier League. Their home win percentage of 47.62% is higher than just Delhi’s 42.86% in league history. The data illustrates how RCB has failed to convert their home pitch into a two-point dispenser on demand. As a result, it has significantly impacted the prospects of qualifying for the playoffs, to the point where RCB has now missed the post-league stage in each of the last four years that they have played at this legendary location.
The franchise had a rather successful run under former Director of Cricket Mike Hesson, as they made three straight playoff appearances between 2020 and 2022. It turned out that throughout those three Covid years, his squad was compelled to leave the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Last year, when Hesson’s RCB visited Bengaluru again, they discovered that the ground’s special dynamics—its short boundaries, elevation, and true pitch—remained inextricably linked to their success. In the end, RCB’s crazy year came down to them needing to defeat Gujarat Titans at home in the league finale to make it ‘four from four’ for Hesson. In the end, even a century from Virat Kohli to propel a total of 197 proved to be utterly inadequate, and RCB finished the season with a 3-4 home record.
That match was a great example of the semantics of a normal T20 match at the stadium, in many aspects. To what extent is par? How does one organise a team in this situation? Hesson lays down the various obstacles that RCB faced during his tenure as they start a new cricket season at the Chinnaswamy in an attempt to break their IPL drought.
Strong home records have been the foundation of success for many elite Twenty20 teams worldwide, including as the Chennai Super Kings and Perth Scorchers. For RCB, this has not been feasible. When you came in late 2019, did the enormity of the Chinnaswamy challenge immediately become apparent?
Yes, I believe that your opponents simply enjoy visiting the Chinnaswamy. from the perspective of batting, at least. It appears as though you have no benefit as a result. Say you’re in Perth; you have to take your time getting used to the steep bouncing surface. Chennai, as you mentioned, has spinners who can constantly assault the stumps, therefore the pitch can hold. Thus, you can choose a team that fits that. In situations where there is only a really good surface, the ball carries and the boundaries are small since you are also at an altitude. It’s one of those fields where you know the scoring is really high, which makes the game quite level. If two of the players at the top bat heavily and you were to pile up your batting in Chinnaswamy, you may have 220/2. Furthermore, you will still be vulnerable from a bowling perspective in that small field. Because of the excellent surface, you may need to chase more than 220 runs even with a quality bowling lineup, so you’ll need depth in your batting. Other than maybe the bowlers, no opponent would truly be afraid to play on this field.
When you initially joined the squad in 2019, how did you feel about them? In what way did the games at Chinnaswamy appeal to you?
Now, the squad’s balance was the first issue I thought needed to be corrected. I believe that batting and Virat and AB [de Villiers] received a lot of attention. It was all about assembling a well-rounded team; historically, successful teams have always had a 2-2 lineup. So, there are two foreign players in the top six and two bowling alternatives in the bottom half. Thus, distributing the talent a little. Naturally, you then need to make an effort to get more local talent. The scouting programme is one aspect of that, but another is looking to hire proven performers from within the country. Thus, all that’s needed is to try to balance spending so that it isn’t entirely focused on abroad projects.
It’s interesting to note that RCB used a 3-1 overseas lineup, including Chris Gayle, de Villiers, and Tillakaratne Dilshan, even in the early to mid-2010s. And one quick bowler, like Mitchell Starc or Ravi Rampaul. They were perhaps even ahead of their time since, in a situation where there is so little room for error in bowling, setting up to outhit the opposition makes perfect sense.
You should, in my opinion, be able to win games using both the bat and the ball. Good sides accomplish that. It is not possible to build up your side with a single component and then assume that you will cross the line. That seems completely unreal to me. ‘Whatever you get, whether it’s 220 or 230, we’re trying to get one more,’ may make for a fun conversation. That may be acceptable on rare occasions, but it won’t provide you any consistency.
That is to say, the teams that have performed well… Without a doubt, there’s a reason why CSK and MI have been the most successful franchises. That is, they can win games using both the bat and the ball. They so don’t simply layer one aspect of their strategy. In my opinion, that would be incredibly foolish, even though fans adore the thrill of realising they have an incredible batting lineup. That’s fantastic; you’re capable of doing it well. However, you must also strike a balance. And that’s what it takes to be a great franchise; the top teams win games by excelling in both areas. For many years, RCB was always a 3-1 team. Three overseas batsmen and one bowler had been used. That was entertaining, but in the years leading up to 2020, it lacked consistency. Therefore, it’s not like it’s out of date or that you can’t accomplish it anymore. or that T20 tournaments are not won by bowlers. They do, of course. You must be able to win the game with the bat or the ball on any given day, and you must have a well-balanced offence.
However, that means you have to compete among a very limited group of elite white-ball bowlers who possess the necessary talents to win at the Chinnaswamy. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah don’t frequently enter the auction pool. Mitchell Starc was also absent for a significant portion of the previous ten years.
Regardless of how skilled you are at other locations, Chinnaswamy is an extremely difficult area to bowl, therefore it’s a very different task. Therefore, I believe it is impractical to stick with the prior strategy of stacking the batting and hope the bowlers will get you over the boundary. because defending it is so difficult there. Additionally, I believe that bowlers at Chinnaswamy should have more reasonable expectations.
As effortless as it is to score big runs when batting, bowling is an entirely different story. Sometimes, even 10 overs in the back end is really effective. Thus, the goal is to try to place restrictions on bowlers. What’s acceptable? What constitutes a suitable performance? For at Chinnaswamy, even the greatest, like Jasprit (7.01 ER) and Starc (8.17 ER), have persevered. Thus, it comes down to two things: adding some elite hitters to your lineup and emphasising the limitations of that. additionally having the ability to counterbalance that by acquiring additional domestic batting talent. Thus, it goes without saying that acquiring players like Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal will enable you to go 2-2. Having two hitters and two bowlers from overseas will give you a far more evenly matched lineup.
You endured the arduous task of playing seven home games at the Chinnaswamy in 2023 after three years. How do you go about establishing up a team there, given that T20 matches often resemble a lottery?
Yes, setting up this ground is incredibly tough. That being said, certain bowlers are more suited to succeed on that surface than others. In Chinnaswamy, you first need “bounce bowlers.” With his height and bounce, Josh Hazlewood was a fantastic bowler on that kind of surface. It’s one of those wickets where you have to bowl back of a length. Mohammed Siraj returned his length with the new ball, which is why he was so good the previous year. You can’t bowl a swinging length against him, even though he’s a swing bowler, because you’ll go the distance. It’s important to get the new ball to a length of about eight metres, which Siraj did admirably last year. We also had the tall bounce bowler, Reece Topley, who had a left arm angle and was out [injury]. Thus, it’s imperative to find those tall players who can bowl eight metres.
At Chinnaswamy, finger spin isn’t very a good alternative (8.85 ER is worse than Wankhede’s 7.85 ER). Brave bowlers who can, when feasible, bowl wide off the stumps are what you need.
Additionally, you must be able to play off both feet from a batting perspective. Thus, people like Patidar…He is an excellent player against spin and pace. He is the kind of player who can come in and carry on the attack even if you lose a wicket early on or after the powerplay. You can always play an extra bowling option with that player, so you don’t have to bat too deep.
Probably the only two players who made a difference for us from the previous year, when we came dangerously close, were Hazlewood and Patidar. It’s challenging to replace those guys.
How about death bowling, too? When it comes to bowling the last four overs at the Chinnaswamy, RCB has consistently been at the top of the economy rate. Are you looking at experts in this case, or are you searching for variation in the attack? Due to the fact that you had two very different bowlers who played in the end, Chris Morris and Harshal Patel…
Yorker bowling is not always death bowling at Chinnaswamy. It’s not a yorker ground when you look at the statistics around yorker execution in the Chinnaswamy and the run-rate there. It’s not a game where you should rush in and try to bowl three in an over, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bowl it either. You also need three different ways to die. Yes, Chris Morris performed admirably during his time in the UAE. Regretfully, he was also concerned about some injuries.
However, bowling at Chinnaswamy is much different once more. I believe you should adjust your expectations. Before the last year, when he wasn’t playing at his peak, Harshal Patel stepped in and was fantastic for us as a death bowler. However, I believe that there was an unrealistic expectation that he would bowl in the end. I believe Harshal would be the first to admit that, although his finger was fractured, he didn’t perform as effectively as he could have. He wasn’t retained, which truly devastated me. It was a little disappointing because, although he had a few bad games, he had previously had two and a half excellent seasons, so I believe he is one man who knows how to bowl at Chinnaswamy. It is unreasonable to imagine that we will be bringing in someone who hasn’t bowled at Chinnaswamy very much and they will instantly be a specialist at it. It’s a demanding expectation placed on that individual.
In my opinion, you should always have three options, regardless of who you are. There must be a variety of them, including yorker, bounce, and off-pace bowlers. Most essential, you need to exercise patience. You need a real mix.
The pitch, what about it? To what extent did you influence the type of wickets made at the Chinnaswamy?
The ground crew at Chinnaswamy only tries to make the greatest pitch they can; they don’t have much influence. They are obviously quite skilled at it. The aeration system in 2017 was the one anomaly; aside than that, the pitch has been outstanding.
To what extent did the Impact Substitute ruling’s arrival interfere with the Chinnaswamy plans?
Well said, and the game has definitely altered as a result. There is a scenario where Andre Russell enters at position eight. At nine, you had a powerful player arrive. When you have team seven down and you believe you may have an end open, Krunal Pandya enters the game. It’s very difficult. It’s getting harder to be the death bowler these days. In the past, you would aim to get both teams five down in 15 [overs], which would reveal an end. Before you can even consider that you have an end open, you must get the team to seven down. Maybe not even in that case. Additionally, it implies that those who cross the midline will likewise come at you more forcefully. If you fail to take wickets in the middle, the death continues to linger. At Chinnaswamy, the last thing you want to do is watch someone die for more than four or five overs. since it’s so challenging. You simply will not be able to shut down teams at the Chinnaswamy, so being a risk-reward bowler who is truly trying to take wickets is quite vital.
A legspinner was someone who exploited certain risk-reward ratios. At the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Yuzvendra Chahal claimed 51 wickets at an average of 7.74.
I believe that some extremely subpar reporting has been done on this. The way the auction went down was hidden from view. In actuality, our goal was to win the auction and repurchase Yuzvendra Chahal. That’s what we said. The problem was that Yuzi was supposed to end up at No. 65 in the auction, which is absurd even now. Given his skill as a bowler, it’s puzzling that he wasn’t placed in either of the top two groups during the auction. It’s unclear who assembled that list. That alone made life very challenging for all of the simulated auctions. When we reached that point, we understood that three or four teams most likely had a larger purse than us. We believed that we may still lose the mock auction if we held onto our INR 12 crore bid for Chahal. Remember that GT had already scooped up Rashid Khan and [Ravi] Bishnoi. We understood that apart from those two, Hasaranga and Chahal were probably the best legspinners. We may have lost out on Hasaranga, who was clearly a skilled player, and we could have waited for Chahal, but if we were outbid, we might not have any legspinner.
Really, we were stranded in the midst. We anticipated making a bid at Hasaranga. 11 crores were our allotted amount for any of the two. We were in a bidding war with Punjab Kings when the auctioneer fell off, and we had reached 10.75 crores. They withdrew when we returned, and we were able to purchase Hasaranga for 10.75 crores. This was fantastic, but it prevented us from going after Chahal. Remember that we could have been outbid quite easily. He made the decision to give RR INR 6.50 crores because he knew that other teams would feel the same way, believing they could hold out and wind up saving a sizable sum of money for a player they would still lose out on. That still irritates me today. Particularly now that they’re back at Chinnaswamy, where Yuzvendra Chahal bowls with skill. It was the situation. There was a lot of bogus chatter about how we didn’t want Chahal. We spent days discussing how to control that in meetings with the management group, but in the end, it proved to be too difficult. We shared Yuzi’s frustration in the end.
Now let’s talk about hitting. Does RCB make the most of their assets? Because even throughout your three consecutive years of qualifying for the playoffs, your net boundary percentage—that is, the percentage of boundaries/balls scored against balls conceded—was negative. 77% of the teams that placed in the top four in every IPL season had a net boundary percentage that is in the green. Additionally, the middle overs are usually when RCB experiences a slump.
Remember, none of these years we played at the Chinnaswamy. The players in your lineup are what you need to consider while making plans. For instance, although he doesn’t hit as many boundaries as some of the other players, Virat is a superb ball handler in the middle overs. As a result, you must surround him with players that enhance that. Other sides are possible from both ends. Our best approach, we discovered, was to make the most of our talent.
Did you speak with Virat about his spin strategy during the middle overs?
That’s how the game occasionally operates. Of course, the field varies, but the strategy must adapt to the circumstances. Virat plays for the team as well. He couldn’t care less about volume runs and isn’t motivated by personal accomplishments. It concerns what he can do to assist in winning a match. Virat and Faf [du Plessis] batted quite well last year, and Virat and Maxi [Glenn Maxwell] did too. We probably compromised on it because we had to shuffle with No. 3, Lomror, Shahbaz, etc. Lomror would have been a better fit for No. 5, but we had to make some adjustments. It was Maxwell’s responsibility to neutralise spin; Virat is undoubtedly a fast and skillful player. Thus, their purpose is to defeat various kinds of bowlers. It’s important to read a scenario rather than asking a player. What is currently needed by the team? With the middle order not contributing as much as it had earlier in the [2023] season, the top order assumed even more responsibility. That may indicate that you lean more towards conservatism in the centre than you would like to. That was something Virat truly didn’t show me last year. The way he assessed the circumstances was extraordinary.
In order to provide them depth, RCB ultimately invested in a number of all-rounders like Shahbaz Ahmed and Mahipal Lomror, but the Impact Player ruling sort of rendered them obsolete and necessitated the hiring of further experts.
We’ve always believed that we should bat deeper. Being able to do that, you know, lets you push yourself more at the top instead of feeling like you have to be cautious. Because there is depth there, it practically frees up your top order to play with much more flexibility. As a top-three or top-four batter, it is common to be more conservative than you would like to be if you are unsure of what is underneath you. This is true whether it is conscious or subconscious. When it comes to the group, the capacity to give it more nuance is essential. Nevertheless, you still need to be proficient in your primary skill. Lomror was a left-hand spin batter by trade. While his limited bowling ability may be useful in some situations, Bengaluru is not one of those situations. We played in Chepauk, Lucknow, where it is possible to bowl flat into the ground and it can be useful. The batting depth is excellent, but you still need to possess excellent skill, perhaps even more so at Chinnaswamy.
However, the depth hasn’t turned out the way you had planned. In that final league game of 2023, Virat had to come off the bench and score a century even to give the score some credibility.
Because they entered the game early and had to bat more during the season, I believe that Shabhaz Ahmed and Dinesh Karthik were the top players the previous year. Your top order often produces byproducts that are your middle order. Last year, the top-order worked fairly well. Compared to the previous year, when they weren’t as successful, three of the top four were outstanding. The others had to step up as a result. It’s really tough to strike that balance in terms of… you want your top order to perform, and they did so admirably overall, but the lower order didn’t provide the cherry on top. Without a doubt, that caused us to suffer. It’s a difficult act of balance.
When discussing the club’s expectations and the lack of trophies, Virat Kohli once mentioned “big franchise pressure” in an interview with the team. When you moved from the Punjab Kings to a different team without an IPL championship in 2019, did you experience anything similar?
Every club, in my opinion, has high standards, and the Royals were no exception. There has been a lot of discussion regarding the pressure that RCB faces due to their lack of IPL victory. That could potentially hinder the team since, more often than not, you can worry too much about the process in order to achieve the desired outcome. It is crucial that RCB focus on getting their house in order before considering the outcome if they are to succeed. When I first arrived, we placed a lot of emphasis on it.
