IPL 2024: 'RCB Have A Huge Fanbase But They Haven't..'- Aakash Chopra's Explosive Remark On Andy Flower's Appointment

Ace commentator Aakash Chopra has reacted to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s appointment of Andy Flower as their head coach ahead of the next season of the Indian Premier League.

The Bengaluru-based outfit recently announced that they would not renew the contracts of Mike Hesson and Sanjay Bangar. Hesson, the former New Zealand head coach, was serving as the Director of Cricket Operations for the franchise while Bangar was the batting coach.

Just minutes after announcing the departure of Hesson, RCB announced the appointment of Andy Flower as their new head coach. The former Zimbabwe batsman served as the head coach of Lucknow Super Giants in the last two seasons of the IPL and helped them make it to the playoffs in both campaigns.

We are beyond thrilled to welcome ??? ???? ?? ????? and ??? ????? ??? winning coach ???? ?????? as the ???? ????? of RCB Men’s team. ??

Andy’s experience of coaching IPL & T20 teams around the world, and leading his teams to titles… pic.twitter.com/WsMYGCkcYT

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) August 4, 2023

Aakash Chopra reacts to Andy Flower’s appointment:

Reacting to Andy Flower’s appointment, Aakash Chopra expressed his surprise as he highlighted RCB’s consistent displays in the recent IPL seasons. Under Hesson, RCB made it to the playoffs thrice in a row from 2020 to 2022 before finishing sixth this year.

“The Royal Challengers Bangalore have appointed a new coach. Andy Flower will become RCB’s coach. It also means Mike Hesson and Sanjay Bangar’s tenure ends here. This team has a huge fan base but has not been that successful.”

“The previous performances have not been ordinary at all. It has now become a 10-team tournament and reaching the playoffs in three of the last four years is not bad at all. You didn’t qualify last year, but then, so be it,” said Aakash Chopra in the video posted on his YouTube channel.

He further gave his opinion on Andy Flower who has been highly successful as a coach so far. Aakash Chopra stated that it won’t be easy for Flower to turn things around as RCB look to win their first-ever IPL title. The former India batsman opined that Flower cannot do much as far as the team combination is concerned and will have to make things work with the available players.

“The winds of change have started blowing now. What will Andy Flower have to do? In my opinion, if you are not part of a mega auction, you won’t be able to do too much movement. You won’t be able to address your prevailing weaknesses,” said Aakash Chopra.

“If a new coaching staff comes at the time of a mega auction, you actually have the slate clean and you start afresh, but if you come in the middle like Andy Flower has come now, his hands will be slightly tied because you have the same players only,” he added.