Still place for players like Virat Kohli in modern T20 cricket: Andy Flower

India Today

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower said that while T20 cricket has become a game of big hitters in the recent past, there's still a place for high-quality, highly intelligent cricketers like Virat Kohli.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, I agree it's a very daunting match for Calcutta. Look, they had a great

00:10season last season, but this is a new year. Everyone's got new squads.

00:15We have had a really nice preparation period where we've got some really good

00:22work into our guys. We like the look of our squad and I'm sure every team will

00:28say this before their first game, but we're pretty much ready. You know, if we

00:33were playing tonight we'd be ready. We'll just do a little bit of top-ups here.

00:36It's very, you know, it's a really exciting challenge for us actually in

00:41our first two games. We away to Calcutta and away in Chennai, so that's a great

00:46opportunity for us to get stuck into this competition and have a great start

00:49in two big away games. Yes, you mentioned a couple of their spinners, you

00:57know, great spinners. Chakrabarty is in really good form and we know about

01:02Narayan over many years, but that's why you play this game at this level. It's to

01:08test yourself against the best in the world and that's what's, it's one

01:13of the most exciting and rewarding parts of playing international cricket or IPL

01:19cricket, which the standard is very much like international cricket and

01:23obviously all the excitement and energy that comes with playing top-class

01:29cricket in India comes with that as well. So, very pleased to be here, happy with

01:35the way our team is shaped up and looking forward to getting started

01:39tomorrow.

01:53Yes, so I think you've mentioned a number of names there, if you could add

02:06Jeetesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, so a lot of these guys have captained statesides

02:12IPL teams and international teams, so that, we're very pleased with that

02:20regardless of who was actually captaining our team this year. I think

02:24having influential people in your squad, guys that have performed at the top

02:32level, of course that gives them a level of confidence and you get that

02:38confidence from the evidence of you succeeding at the top level in the past

02:42and there are a lot of our guys that have done that in obviously performance

02:47terms but also leadership terms, so we were conscious of that in our

02:52recruitment, yes, and in saying that they will be able to give a lot of support to

03:00Rajat, I think he is really excited about his challenge and it's a brilliant

03:08challenge for him and we're right behind him, but if you look at for

03:13instance our bowling attack, we've got Hazelwood, Bhuvi, Yash and Krunal and

03:19even Yash has got some good experience now and he's got a pretty calm

03:23good head on his shoulders, so that's four guys that will almost be

03:27captaining themselves in terms of tactics and decision-making, so I think

03:35we're in a good place in our squad and our team with that

03:40leadership capacity. Hi, this is Gautam, I write for the

03:46National Herald. Where are you Gautam? Just a quick one, only yesterday we

03:53have had two major rule changes which seems to be aimed at

04:00making it a little more even playing field for the bowlers, one the

04:03saliva part and the other one of course the ball change, how do you look at

04:08these two? I like the rule change on the captains electing when they can take a

04:17second ball in the second half of the innings, I've always wondered why there

04:24was this reticence on the umpire's part to change the ball to make it an even

04:29and fair contest and that's what we're looking for, the people that

04:33make the rules under which we play the game of cricket and ground staff

04:40preparing pitches, we're always looking for a fair balance between

04:45bat and ball and I think in conditions where dew does affect game significantly

04:51I think that's a really good rule change and about time. The saliva part,

04:59I mean I don't see it as being that important, we'll see if it has an effect

05:06as long as not too many people are all of a sudden become huge fans of

05:12sugary sweets.

05:24One question would be since you're starting away, we'll talk about your

05:28spin bowling a bit, on some quarters there is a bit of apprehension about the

05:32experience in the spin bowling department especially wrist spin, I mean

05:36of course Maxwell has been replaced possibly by a Bethel or a Livingston or

05:41we have Surya Sharma as well but could you address these possible concerns

05:45about the at least the experience of IPL spin bowling and how important do you

05:50think it will be for you to succeed in that department to win this tournament?

05:54Yeah I think that's a really good and apt question to ask.

06:01Krunal was a significant part of our targeted players in the auction

06:07and it's great to have him on board, he's a smart and courageous cricketer and

06:13again he's got leadership experience as well so having his mouse, he's a

06:21streetwise operator and he's obviously got class as a left arm spinner let

06:27alone as an all-rounder that's that is comforting to have him in our group and

06:33leading the way in the spin department. Then we've got on the

06:39wrist spin front we've got Suyash who's a very exciting young prospect with

06:43limited experience but really high ceiling and Mohit Rati to back him up

06:52and you know we're looking for great things from Suyash but none of us know

06:58exactly how he's going to go in a full IPL season and every young

07:04player starts off that way. He's rehabbing after some recent groin

07:10surgery and that's gone really well that's been a long-standing injury

07:16problem that he's had which we identified during the the offseason and

07:21he's had some really good care and attention from RCB actually but we're

07:27hoping for great things from him and but we are also not expecting him to be you

07:32know shame-worn from the off. We've got to be patient and let him learn from his

07:38experiences and it's good that he's got these experienced cricketers around him

07:43and and a captain that he'll be comfortable working with and to back

07:49them up obviously Swapnil Singh was good for us last year and Liam Livingston

07:56does a bit of everything and so having him as as a backup on the spin

08:01department is it's quite nice insurance to have. So we're comfortable with where

08:07we are and we'll see how we go game by game.

08:13I'm Zafar would you tell that this may be sorry yeah yeah would you tell that

08:22this match is the El Classico of IPL and how have you analyzed to tackle Varun

08:33the mystery bowler? Well look tackling the second part of the question first it

08:42would be rather silly of me here to outline how our batsmen are planning to

08:46play Varun. What I will say is that he's been in really good form it's been nice

08:52watching him on TV and have such success in in the international game and we

08:57respect him a lot but we've also got some good players of spin in our setup

09:02and they've got very clear idea of of their plans against him and it's a good

09:11battle it'll be a good battle between some powerful and knowledgeable batters

09:16in our setup and a skillful finger finger spin mystery bowler like Varun and

09:24that's why we all turned up that's why we're all looking forward to tomorrow's

09:28game to see that sort of battle. An El Classico I hope it is an El Classico

09:34tomorrow night that'll be a brilliant way to start IPL 25.

09:38One last question.

09:40I feel like at the UK or every ETL we have been discussing rules like Varun last year at this particular event

09:48260 was a down

09:50especially after being batted by Varun

09:52so how do you see this playing of 260 to get through it?

09:57especially these leagues

09:59especially IPL

10:01so how do you see this

10:03heading towards a baseball game

10:05when we hit out or get out there?

10:07well you definitely see batting swings becoming a little more baseball like

10:14absolutely and physiques so a lot of the batsmen are getting bigger and

10:20stronger and they're recognizing the importance of strength and in fact a

10:26better description would be power rather than strength so strength added with

10:30speed and you get this power output of these really really strong guys but

10:36there are there's still place in the game for players like Virat Kohli as

10:41well obviously super fit strong young man as well but there's there's still

10:50space for high-quality highly intelligent cricketers like that as well

10:57but there is a shift towards power there's no doubt about that and we saw

11:02that in the scores I hope that some of the rule changes will balance balance

11:09out a little more bowling effectiveness as well so that we keep that balance in

11:15the game but you you see just enough in the selection of our batting unit you

11:21will see the emphasis on power with a few just a couple of exceptions and I

11:28think that is the way the games going so it's really exciting to be involved in

11:33the game at the moment because it is moving quite quickly in various ways you

11:37know even in the decisions that the administrators are going to have to make

11:41to balance out various aspects of the formats of the game is really

11:46fascinating to be part of and watch so yeah I think it's just great that we're

11:54in a high-profile tournament that's setting new standards and and I would

12:00imagine this is going to be an amazing couple of months

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