Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower said that while T20 cricket has become a game of big hitters in the recent past, there's still a place for high-quality, highly intelligent cricketers like Virat Kohli.
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00:00Yeah, I agree it's a very daunting match for Calcutta. Look, they had a great
00:10season last season, but this is a new year. Everyone's got new squads.
00:15We have had a really nice preparation period where we've got some really good
00:22work into our guys. We like the look of our squad and I'm sure every team will
00:28say this before their first game, but we're pretty much ready. You know, if we
00:33were playing tonight we'd be ready. We'll just do a little bit of top-ups here.
00:36It's very, you know, it's a really exciting challenge for us actually in
00:41our first two games. We away to Calcutta and away in Chennai, so that's a great
00:46opportunity for us to get stuck into this competition and have a great start
00:49in two big away games. Yes, you mentioned a couple of their spinners, you
00:57know, great spinners. Chakrabarty is in really good form and we know about
01:02Narayan over many years, but that's why you play this game at this level. It's to
01:08test yourself against the best in the world and that's what's, it's one
01:13of the most exciting and rewarding parts of playing international cricket or IPL
01:19cricket, which the standard is very much like international cricket and
01:23obviously all the excitement and energy that comes with playing top-class
01:29cricket in India comes with that as well. So, very pleased to be here, happy with
01:35the way our team is shaped up and looking forward to getting started
01:39tomorrow.
01:53Yes, so I think you've mentioned a number of names there, if you could add
02:06Jeetesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, so a lot of these guys have captained statesides
02:12IPL teams and international teams, so that, we're very pleased with that
02:20regardless of who was actually captaining our team this year. I think
02:24having influential people in your squad, guys that have performed at the top
02:32level, of course that gives them a level of confidence and you get that
02:38confidence from the evidence of you succeeding at the top level in the past
02:42and there are a lot of our guys that have done that in obviously performance
02:47terms but also leadership terms, so we were conscious of that in our
02:52recruitment, yes, and in saying that they will be able to give a lot of support to
03:00Rajat, I think he is really excited about his challenge and it's a brilliant
03:08challenge for him and we're right behind him, but if you look at for
03:13instance our bowling attack, we've got Hazelwood, Bhuvi, Yash and Krunal and
03:19even Yash has got some good experience now and he's got a pretty calm
03:23good head on his shoulders, so that's four guys that will almost be
03:27captaining themselves in terms of tactics and decision-making, so I think
03:35we're in a good place in our squad and our team with that
03:40leadership capacity. Hi, this is Gautam, I write for the
03:46National Herald. Where are you Gautam? Just a quick one, only yesterday we
03:53have had two major rule changes which seems to be aimed at
04:00making it a little more even playing field for the bowlers, one the
04:03saliva part and the other one of course the ball change, how do you look at
04:08these two? I like the rule change on the captains electing when they can take a
04:17second ball in the second half of the innings, I've always wondered why there
04:24was this reticence on the umpire's part to change the ball to make it an even
04:29and fair contest and that's what we're looking for, the people that
04:33make the rules under which we play the game of cricket and ground staff
04:40preparing pitches, we're always looking for a fair balance between
04:45bat and ball and I think in conditions where dew does affect game significantly
04:51I think that's a really good rule change and about time. The saliva part,
04:59I mean I don't see it as being that important, we'll see if it has an effect
05:06as long as not too many people are all of a sudden become huge fans of
05:12sugary sweets.
05:24One question would be since you're starting away, we'll talk about your
05:28spin bowling a bit, on some quarters there is a bit of apprehension about the
05:32experience in the spin bowling department especially wrist spin, I mean
05:36of course Maxwell has been replaced possibly by a Bethel or a Livingston or
05:41we have Surya Sharma as well but could you address these possible concerns
05:45about the at least the experience of IPL spin bowling and how important do you
05:50think it will be for you to succeed in that department to win this tournament?
05:54Yeah I think that's a really good and apt question to ask.
06:01Krunal was a significant part of our targeted players in the auction
06:07and it's great to have him on board, he's a smart and courageous cricketer and
06:13again he's got leadership experience as well so having his mouse, he's a
06:21streetwise operator and he's obviously got class as a left arm spinner let
06:27alone as an all-rounder that's that is comforting to have him in our group and
06:33leading the way in the spin department. Then we've got on the
06:39wrist spin front we've got Suyash who's a very exciting young prospect with
06:43limited experience but really high ceiling and Mohit Rati to back him up
06:52and you know we're looking for great things from Suyash but none of us know
06:58exactly how he's going to go in a full IPL season and every young
07:04player starts off that way. He's rehabbing after some recent groin
07:10surgery and that's gone really well that's been a long-standing injury
07:16problem that he's had which we identified during the the offseason and
07:21he's had some really good care and attention from RCB actually but we're
07:27hoping for great things from him and but we are also not expecting him to be you
07:32know shame-worn from the off. We've got to be patient and let him learn from his
07:38experiences and it's good that he's got these experienced cricketers around him
07:43and and a captain that he'll be comfortable working with and to back
07:49them up obviously Swapnil Singh was good for us last year and Liam Livingston
07:56does a bit of everything and so having him as as a backup on the spin
08:01department is it's quite nice insurance to have. So we're comfortable with where
08:07we are and we'll see how we go game by game.
08:13I'm Zafar would you tell that this may be sorry yeah yeah would you tell that
08:22this match is the El Classico of IPL and how have you analyzed to tackle Varun
08:33the mystery bowler? Well look tackling the second part of the question first it
08:42would be rather silly of me here to outline how our batsmen are planning to
08:46play Varun. What I will say is that he's been in really good form it's been nice
08:52watching him on TV and have such success in in the international game and we
08:57respect him a lot but we've also got some good players of spin in our setup
09:02and they've got very clear idea of of their plans against him and it's a good
09:11battle it'll be a good battle between some powerful and knowledgeable batters
09:16in our setup and a skillful finger finger spin mystery bowler like Varun and
09:24that's why we all turned up that's why we're all looking forward to tomorrow's
09:28game to see that sort of battle. An El Classico I hope it is an El Classico
09:34tomorrow night that'll be a brilliant way to start IPL 25.
09:38One last question.
09:40I feel like at the UK or every ETL we have been discussing rules like Varun last year at this particular event
09:48260 was a down
09:50especially after being batted by Varun
09:52so how do you see this playing of 260 to get through it?
09:57especially these leagues
09:59especially IPL
10:01so how do you see this
10:03heading towards a baseball game
10:05when we hit out or get out there?
10:07well you definitely see batting swings becoming a little more baseball like
10:14absolutely and physiques so a lot of the batsmen are getting bigger and
10:20stronger and they're recognizing the importance of strength and in fact a
10:26better description would be power rather than strength so strength added with
10:30speed and you get this power output of these really really strong guys but
10:36there are there's still place in the game for players like Virat Kohli as
10:41well obviously super fit strong young man as well but there's there's still
10:50space for high-quality highly intelligent cricketers like that as well
10:57but there is a shift towards power there's no doubt about that and we saw
11:02that in the scores I hope that some of the rule changes will balance balance
11:09out a little more bowling effectiveness as well so that we keep that balance in
11:15the game but you you see just enough in the selection of our batting unit you
11:21will see the emphasis on power with a few just a couple of exceptions and I
11:28think that is the way the games going so it's really exciting to be involved in
11:33the game at the moment because it is moving quite quickly in various ways you
11:37know even in the decisions that the administrators are going to have to make
11:41to balance out various aspects of the formats of the game is really
11:46fascinating to be part of and watch so yeah I think it's just great that we're
11:54in a high-profile tournament that's setting new standards and and I would
12:00imagine this is going to be an amazing couple of months