IPL Auction: RCB Director of Cricket Mo Bobat keen to look for overseas fast-bowlers

Dubai, Dec 18 (IANS) Mo Bobat, the Director of Cricket for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), stated that the side will be keen to rope in overseas fast-bowlers at the upcoming IPL Auction, happening in Dubai on Tuesday.

Before the auction, RCB got Australia all-rounder Cameron Green in a trade from Mumbai Indians. They enter the auction with a purse of INR 23.25 crores and have to fill six slots, three of which are overseas.

Their eyes will be on getting overseas pacer and spinner after letting go of Josh Hazlewood and Wanindu Hasaranga, as well as in Indian bowling options after releasing Harshal Patel while Shahbaz Ahmed was traded to Sunrisers Hyderabad.

“We have got a strong core of retaining players, and we have got a very powerful top order. Part of the decision-making that we had around our player release decisions was to try and strengthen the middle order and bringing Cameron Green was a fantastic move.”

“Mohammad Siraj is a core part of what we do so supporting Siraj with some more bowling options including overseas bowling options is going to be a real priority for us moving forward.”

“Then we have got a core of local spinners, which I think is quite strong. Some of them got some opportunities over the last year or two and they might play more leading roles moving forward,” said Bobat in a release issued by the franchise, where he spoke on the auction strategy during RCB Innovation Lab’s Leaders Meet India held last month.

Bobat, who will be leaving his role as England Men’s Performance Director to be full-time with RCB, expressed his commitment of creating a performance-based culture in the side. “I am committed to a long-term project here. We have a fantastic captain in Faf, and an excellent group of senior players with the experience of Virat, Maxi (Maxwell), and DK (Dinesh Karthik). So the ingredients are really strong.”

“The next objective is to make sure we create the right performance, and culture where the players can really go and showcase what they are capable of, and go out and entertain the public. If we commit to our processes, play a brand of cricket that is aggressive, and have those moments where we're prepared to be brave it will get the fans going.”

Bobat also delved into the skill, physical, and psychological aspects while zeroing on the best likely fits at the auction for RCB, who are yet to win an IPL title. “Naturally cricket tends to get attracted to and gravitate towards things like the control and the lateral movement of fast bowlers but what we should be doing is identifying players that have the pace and the balance.”

“The reason I draw that distinction is you can teach someone to ball accurately, you can teach someone to develop craft and lateral movement but it is not that easy to teach pace or manufacture balance because you are talking about their release height and their physicality."

"So understanding that distinction between which of those attributes we need to identify and which of those things we can teach over time is a really important distinction.”