Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals (RR) head coach Paddy Upton, who was MS Dhoni-led Indian Cricket Team’s mental expert during their historical 2011 World Cup success, is excited to once again working with the RR in the IPL 2019 has been in charge from 2013 to 2015.
Upton, who had previously been the Head Coach for RR for four years, believes that Royals has got more depth and a greater pool of talent than ever before this IPL and according to him, the current squad has the serious ability to make a dent in the ongoing 12th edition of the T20 event.
Under Upton’s coaching stint, the Royals made it to the semi-finals in 2013 and the South African said it was the happiest memories of his association with the franchise in Jaipur where they won nine successive IPL matches in the IPL 2013.
Exclusively speaking to CricketNext on Sunday, 24 March, Upton said, “One of the things that characterized Royals of old was that the team was full of underdogs and youngsters. One of the reasons why we're so competitive was the talent identification and auction strategies of Zubin Bharucha, Rahul Dravid and their team of analysts. That really has a set a strong foundation for Rajasthan to identify talent early. So, it is really up to Zubin and his team that they identified Turner early and realized his value, ensuring we could secure him.”
Before RR’s IPL 2019 campaign opener against the Kings XI Punjab at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium (SMS) in Jaipur on Monday, 25 March, Coach recalled the memories with the Royals, “The best IPL memory was when Rajasthan Royals really made the stadium their fortress and won 9 out of 9 games here. The way we played to win those games was really wonderful. The IPL has individual highlights scattered through the tournament, teams have some incredible nail-biting victories but the tournament is characterized by teams that can sustain their performances for the full duration of the seven weeks.”
Ajinkya Rahane-led RR features the stars likes of Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, and Jofra Archer and a surprise package in all-rounder Ashton Turner and West Indian paceman Oshane Thomas -who are all now in fine form, which would make it hard for Upton to select the playing XI in the IPL 2019.
The 50-year-old coach added, “Compared to my involvement from 2013 to 2015, this squad has got more depth and a greater pool of talent than I have ever been involved with before, which is really, really exciting. A lot of that talent in really good form. The problem is picking 11 players out of more than 25. We have more than 11 that are in really good form and have a serious ability to make a dent in T20 games. We have some selection dilemmas because we have quality batsmen and more than 11 quality players. It is a really nice challenge ahead of us.”
On Shane Warne, who was the Royals skipper in the inaugural season of the IPL and currently in the RR’s mentor for the IPL 2019, Upton noted, “Shane Warne has been part of the Royals right from the beginning. He was part of setting up a lot of our success and the team as a whole. His knowledge of cricket and wonderful ability to bring the best out of youngsters and his experiences as a former Royals cricketers. He brings that gravitas to everything we are doing from a cricketing perspective.”
Meanwhile, the pacers would be the key in the success of the franchises in the tournament given the history of the event, and RR coaching is hoping the same from his pacers in the IPL 2019.
Upton signed off by saying, “If we draw on history, the success of Indian pace bowlers have often paralleled the success of the franchises be it Mumbai Indians or Sunrisers Hyderabad. Having Indian pace bowlers performing well goes a long way to set up the team for success. At the moment, we are seeing Indian pace bowlers really stepping up and putting the Indian team on the world map. That is going to happen in IPL as well with Indian pace bowlers likely to lead most of the franchises’ attacks.”
(With CricketNext Input)
