IPL 2020: Not just Aaron Finch, RCB have several players who can help take load off Virat Kohli: Simon Katich

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Simon Katich has said Aaron Finch is not the only player who will help take the pressure off captain Virat Kohli in the upcoming season of the IPL.

Eyeing their first-ever IPL title, Royal Challengers Bangalore secured Finch’s services in the last auction. With a vast experience both as a batsman and a captain, Finch is set to play a huge role for his new IPL side. Simon Katich said Finch was high on their priority at December’s auction.

At the same time, he stated that it’s not just the Australian captain whom they are looking at to help take the load off captain Virat Kohli. Simon Katich pointed out that the likes of AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Yuzvendra Chahal, Chris Morris are part of a core group that will be helping Kohli not just on match days but behind the scenes as well.

“Obviously, when we identified players whom we were looking to bring in at the auction, we were looking at experienced international cricketers at the top of their game. Obviously, being a small auction, there were only a certain number of players available but they were some outstanding options at the auctions last year,” Simon Katich told reporters.

“Aaron Finch was high on that list, given what he has been able to achieve for Australia as captain but also a player over the last number of years. He is one of the top-ranked T20I batsmen in the world. He is a very good player of spin. The other thing is he brings leadership to a group.

“It’s not just Aaron Finch. We have got a number of senior players. Obviously AB de Villiers has been at RCB for a number of years now and done very well over the years. He is a senior player who is going to provide that leadership as well for Virat and any help that he needs.

“Virat Kohli has obviously got a huge amount of leadership experience with the Indian team and RCB and hopefully the core group around him will be able to take the load off him from playing point of view also when it comes to getting the group to gel and bonding with the group.

“There is a variety of experienced players, Chahal is another one, Steyn is another, Morris is there. Isuru Udana, Virat has got a lot of senior players there in the group to be able to not only help out on game day but also help, along with the support staff, when it comes to training and preparing and helping the young guys learn the ropes,” he added.

Royal Challengers Bangalore will be looking to end their title drought in the upcoming season. They have made it to the final of the competition thrice – 2009, 2011 and 2016 – but ended up on the wrong side of the result on every occasion. Their performance in the last few years has been a lot worse.

Since making it to the final in 2016, they have not managed to make it past the league stage. In last three seasons, they have finished at the bottom twice while on the other occasion, they finished at a lowly sixth spot in the eight-team competition.

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