Mike Hesson Admits That RCB Squad Will Need A Slight Tweak Ahead Of IPL 2021

Royal Challengers Bangalore team director Mike Hesson opened up on the franchise’s plans ahead of IPL 2021 after another unsuccessful campaign. Royal Challengers’ IPL 2020 campaign went by without capturing the IPL trophy after it delivered plenty of promise of doing it. Mike Hesson admitted that there was over-reliance on the foreign players and the squad will need tweaking.

Royal Challengers Bangalore ended their ongoing IPL edition with five successive losses under their belt as their batting line-up could not get the runs. The over-dependence on captain Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers was palpable in the last few games as their inconsistency did not enable the rest of the batsmen to step up. Kohli’s captaincy decisions were also questionable at times, contributing to their defeats.

Mike Hesson underlined that they already have had discussions and have to see whether the mega auction will take place next year. The former New Zealand revealed that the three-time finalists have got an excellent core group; however, the over-dependence on overseas players is not helping. Hence, they need modification and mentioned that the development of Devdutt Padikkal and Washington Sundar is a massive thing for them.

“We already have had initial discussions, we will let the dust settle first, we will gather a lot of ideas firstly, we also need to find facts whether there is a small auction or big auction next year, the core group is good but we do need a little bit of tweaking, the middle order cannot be fixed by just overseas players. It is always a balancing act in terms of how we do it, that is why the development of Padikkal and Washington Sundar is so important for us, regardless of it being a small or big auction,” Mike Hesson stated as quoted by ANI.

“The performance of young Indian players is the biggest promising sign for us” : Mike Hesson

The 45-year old praised the Indian players for stepping up and highlighted it as a significant positive factor for us. He felt right to provide consistent opportunities to the likes of Padikkal, Navdeep Saini, and Mohammed Siraj, who are developing their game. Hence, Mike Hesson feels their continuous growth will serve as the backbone for them moving forward, enabling the franchise to keep pushing for the maiden title.

“I think the performance of young Indian players is the biggest promising sign for us moving forward, the key to any successful franchise in the IPL are your Indian players. The fact that we have been able to provide a consistent opportunity to the likes of Padikkal, Saini, Sundar, Siraj just to name a few, they have been exceptional and they are growing their game. They are going to give us the backbone of this team going forward, we need a core group of Indians and we have started to develop a bigger core, that’s promising,” he added.

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