The Royal Challengers Bengaluru back-room boss talks about the franchise’s strategy at this year’s auction
Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi19-Dec-20244:08
Mo Bobat: ‘We switched from being slightly cautious to being more aggressive through all phases’
Why have Royal Challengers Bengaluru never won the IPL? Every RCB captain, head coach and team director has had to deal with this question, including the franchise’s current leadership group comprised of team director Mo Bobat, head coach Andy Flower, mentor Dinesh Karthik and former captain and key batter Virat Kohli. In the following conversation, Bobat, who took over the role in September 2023, explains that while winning the IPL remains the primary target, he wants RCB’s players to instil in themselves a culture of playing aggressively.Both you and Andy are now in your second season. Based on what happened in 2024, where you came back to make the playoffs after a horrendous first half, what were the areas you wanted addressed that would define your approach towards retention and the auction?
We want to win the IPL, that’s what we are here for. RCB has a somewhat unique background in that for a team that has quite a big status, we obviously haven’t won the competition, and it ends up being a narrative that plays out a lot. One of the reasons I came to RCB was, I’m excited by that challenge. I’m certainly not daunted by it. The same is true for Andy. There’s a fine line between being excited by that challenge and making sure you’re not obsessed by it. I think if we get obsessed by that, it ends up being an additional pressure.What I want us to be obsessed with is how we are going to play our cricket. Some of the ingredients that we think are going to help us to deliver on all of that – and this came across in some of the things we shared around the auction – was that we wanted to develop a strong Indian core to our team.Related
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If you look at just our Indian players, a big proportion of our IPL caps were sat in two players – in Virat and DK [Dinesh Karthik, now retired]. And it’s brilliant to have guys of that level of experience, but we wanted to even that out slightly and have more Indian players with experience, and preferably leadership experience as well, to strengthen that core.We started with retaining three Indian players, which I don’t think RCB has ever done before. Another thing was – and a few teams clearly had this mantra – trying to spend money on our starters [playing XI] and trying to make sure that you have high quality on the field. That might mean slightly smaller squads. It might mean not quite as much experience on the bench. So if we spent big money on top-order batters like RCB may have done in the past, we might not have achieved that Indian core, we might not have achieved the balance and variety, and we might not have strengthened our bowling attack enough.Do you agree that you had a data-based approach in picking your potential first XI in the auction? Looking at things like balls per boundary, dots bowled in the last four overs, yorker percentage at the death, and so on? This was something RCB possibly did not whole-heartedly embrace before.
I don’t fully agree with that. The precursor to your data is the vision and our vision is how we want to play. Now that could get overlooked once you get into the micro details of a single recruitment and this player over that player. We’ve spent a lot of time leaning on our own experiences of the past and the wisdom and experience of the people in our group, whether that be Andy as head coach or other coaches; DK, who’s obviously got an influential role now. Even input from people like Virat as a senior player who’s been retained – us all being aligned on how we want to play is the first thing.And then once you’ve got that vision of how you want to play, you can afford to think about the various key roles in your team. So yes, we would have used data, but the only reason we would have used data as we did was: Andy and I are both pretty strong on evidence and rigour. And some decisions might lean towards our observations on the player, whether that be observations from our scouting team, from our coaches, and other elements that will lean quite heavily on data. And I would always say that no two selections are the same, or no two recruitments are the same.”Virat scored runs throughout the [2024] competition. Midway through, he said, ‘Right, I’m going to lead the way here, we can all be more aggressive'”•Idrees Mohammed/AFP/Getty ImagesThe underlying element common to your batting picks is power. Is that because of the desire to keep that aggressive intent running through the innings?
Without a doubt. We found last year that some of the big improvements we made with our aggression was actually through that middle phase, [for instance, with] Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar. So it is our intent to do that. And look, there were other teams that did that last year too: KKR were a good example of that, as were SRH, they just kept coming at you. And when we played well, we did the same thing.When I look at T20 cricket now, that’s the way it’s going. Ultimately the intensity and the run rate that batters achieve, now you are looking to maintain that through the innings. There isn’t really this consolidation phase in the middle (overs 7-16) unless conditions dictate that or if there’s a flurry of early wickets.Also, you are not relying on one individual. Like, it is only not up to Liam Livingstone to play the power-hitter or finisher, as you now have others around him who can share that responsibility.
Absolutely, and that means you are more likely to achieve what we described, and without that pressure being on one individual. I think they’ll probably display a healthier relationship with risk that they won’t worry about the consequences of getting out, because they’ll know there’s more power to come. And it’s the other reason why we wanted depth in our batting order, to have the likes of Rajat, Livingstone, Jitesh [Sharma], Tim David, Krunal [Pandya], even someone like Jacob Bethell.Last year Kohli shed his traditional approach of batting deep and struck at a high tempo in the powerplay. With the kind of power-hitters you now have, does Kohli drop anchor so the rest can play around him explosively, or would you like him to continue the way he played last season?
Firstly, Virat’s got a wealth of experience and incredibly high skill. I trust him to figure things out in the middle and to know what to do. You are right, last year, Virat and Faf [du Plessis] role-modelled brilliantly the intent that was required. Virat scored runs throughout the competition, even in that initial period when we weren’t getting results. But even he, midway through, said, “Right, I’m going to lead the way here, we can all be more aggressive.” It was brilliant to see him talk that through with the rest of the batting group and back his words up with action. I’ve got no doubt that he’ll want to maintain that moving forward. I certainly won’t be, and Andy certainly won’t be, sending the team out with somebody having the intent to drop anchor. That isn’t what’s required. We want to make the most of every delivery. Players can be trusted to assess the situation, the conditions out there, and Virat will be no different to anybody else. A unique challenge for RCB is their high-scoring home ground. Did that play a role in the kind of bowlers you went for at the auction?
Our mantra is to not think too much about defending and to try and think about attacking with bat and ball.Mo Bobat (left) on RCB’s auction approach: “We started with retaining three Indian players, and trying to spend money on our playing XI and trying to make sure you have high quality on the field”•RCBFor the 2024 season, the fast bowlers you had picked were tall, could bowl 140-plus and be the point of difference, especially at the Chinnaswamy. This auction you have gone with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood. Is there a clear shift towards experience?
Given what I said about our reflections of last year, of us wanting to be able to take wickets, particularly early on to get ahead of the game, having bowlers that are highly skilled through all phases is really important, particularly with the new ball, and of course, at the death. And also having the experience and the resilience to deal with the pressure that comes with bowling at the Chinnaswamy. Both Bhuvi and Josh Hazlewood are very threatening upfront with the new ball. But they can bowl through [all] phases, and both have a track record of [bowling well] at the death.What about the middle overs? There seems to be a hole there. Yes, you have Krunal, and possibly one of the two uncapped spinners – Swapnil Singh and Suyash Sharma. Who plays the main role in that phase?
Krunal is a highly experienced bowler, has played a number of games at Chinnaswamy, has got a track record over a number of years of being very economical, and also has taken wickets. [It’s] always good to have the left-arm spin angle. Also happy with Swapnil, who did really well for us last year.With wristspin, we tried to recruit Yuzi Chahal, but unfortunately we pulled up [entered] quite deep into that bidding process, but not deep enough to get him [RCB made a single bid at Rs 14.25 crore (US$1.67m approx.) before pulling out]. But we were always pretty happy with Suyash Sharma as our back-up if we weren’t able to get Yuzi. He’s an attacking legspinner, bowls good pace, attacks the stumps. We also have Livingstone, who bowls both offspin and legspin, depending on whether he’s bowling to left-handers or right-handers. So that’s a good threat.Chahal has been a consistent match-winner in the IPL, including at RCB before. Can you give us a bit more insight into your bid for him? Do you also think Chahal being a single-skill player was a factor in determining how much you spent on him?
Yeah, look, we were very keen on Yuzi and that’s reflected in the fact that he was a key target for us and we went quite high for him. We actually didn’t want to overspend on any one individual. In his case, of course, like you are describing, he’s a single-skill player, but it’s an important skill. Like most teams, you set a budget for a role, and we exceeded that budget quite a bit in our bidding, but we could only go so far.And the other surprise loss was Mohammed Siraj. You had three Right-To-Match cards, but you did not use one to get him back. RCB have played a role in developing his bowling and he also has a very good relationship with the franchise. What went into deciding not to retain him and to not get him back at the auction?
It is important to recognise what Siraj has done for RCB over a number of years. He’s been a champion player for us. I massively enjoyed working with him last year, and I think I might have mentioned publicly that not retaining him was one of our tougher decisions, if not the toughest. We had Bhuvi quite high on our list and we wanted to give ourselves a chance to get him. Unfortunately, the way auctions work out, with Bhuvi coming quite late, it’s like a game of poker, to hold your nerve and see whether you can hold on and wait for a player, and sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t.Bobat explains bidding for Bhuvneshwar Kumar as RCB wanting “bowlers having the experience and resilience to deal with the pressure that comes with bowling at the Chinnaswamy”•BCCIUnfortunately it didn’t work out for us to get Siraj just because of our priorities, auction order and the spending pattern. That’s again quite similar for a couple of other players, both Faf and Will Jacks were definitely guys we were considering right-to-matching (RTM) if things fell a certain way.But the lesson I’ve learned is, you can’t be too precise with who you think you’re going to get. Will Jacks is a great example. I’m incredibly fond of Will, and he was brilliant last year when he came into the team. He was definitely someone we were thinking of right-to-matching, but if you wait as deep as he was coming up in the auction, having not filled a role, that is a risk, and given the way the spending pattern works out and given that we missed one or two of our targets and we had probably a bit more money than we anticipated, you have to make decisions. So regrettably, Faf, Jacks and Siraj were guys we had in our minds for right-to-matches, but it just didn’t fall that way and you end up building your team slightly differently, which is a shame.Venkatesh Iyer became the headline of the mega-auction after KKR bought him back for a massive Rs 23.75 crore ($2.8m). The losing bid was 23.25 crore ($2.7m), made by RCB. While you stuck to the policy of not going overboard with bidding high for one single player, for Iyer, you went massive. Can you explain that and why you eventually pulled out?
[Among] those we had identified to add to the three retained players as part of our Indian core were Yuzi and Venky Iyer, who was a high priority for us for a number of reasons. One, he’s someone that can bat in the top order, and he’s left-handed – there aren’t too many of those. He’s very experienced and he’s got a very consistent track record and he very strongly fit with how we want to play. His aggressive intent was exactly how we wanted to play.In addition to him, we had a couple of other core Indian targets. We had Jitesh in the middle order, we had Krunal as a spin allrounder who was going to give us balance, and we also wanted to have a good crack at Bhuvi, if we could afford to by the time he came up in the auction. So when you have a template like that to your team and an overview of those Indian players, you have to then work out your spending pattern.”We were always pretty happy with Suyash Sharma as our back-up if we weren’t able to get Yuzi. He’s an attacking legspinner, bowls good pace, attacks the stumps”•BCCINow Yuzi came up quite early. I don’t think Yuzi in IPL history had gone for more than six [crore INR, $700,000] in auction, so we set a pretty healthy budget for him, more than double that was our budget for him. Now when we didn’t get Yuzi, I was quite keen to use whatever money we were going to save, because we weren’t expecting to pay that amount for the back-up legspinner. We used that towards trying to make sure we got Venky Iyer. We pulled out at a point where we thought it was getting a bit too excessive because it was going to compromise those other Indian core targets.Kohli has been part of the leadership group at RCB for over a decade. What was the feedback he gave on the auction?
He’s someone I have spoken to regularly since the end of the [2024] season. [We are] really quite fortunate in some ways that Virat spends a good amount of time in the UK, so we have been able to meet face-to-face and have discussions with myself, him and Andy. We were all very aligned on the types of players and discipline we were looking for, building a strong Indian core, those unique skill sets for the Chinnaswamy. That fed quite easily into our retentions. Even on auction days [he was] interacting with us at the table, in particular interacting with DK.To sum up, your focus and priority during retention and auction was on picking players who can help RCB win the IPL. Is that accurate?
Winning the IPL is our target, but the way we play is our obsession. We want to get our competitive identity, and if we do that, it’ll take care of itself. Now, the proof will be in the pudding. We’ll find out when we get into the competition, but if you want a different outcome, you’ve got to have a different approach.Maybe you need to find a new home ground!
Why? I love playing at the Chinnaswamy. For me, that just adds to the intrigue: can we do it with that constraint? It’s exciting.