Ahead of the 2021 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Simon Katich showered rich praise on Australia's Glenn Maxwell, terming the latter as multi-purpose player and someone the franchise needed in their ranks.
Having entered the IPL 2021 auction with the available purse of INR 35.40 crore, RCB bought 10 players, with Maxwell and New Zealand's Kyle Jamieson fetching a whopping INR 14.25 crore and 15 crore respectively.
WATCH – RCB release video of fetching Glenn Maxwell in mock auction
"It's interesting, the process and the dynamic of the small options and things can get out of control when there are three or four teams beating on to select a few players for a certain role. We estimated that was probably going to be the case for four or five quick bowlers around the place, given who is looking for what. It did not come as a huge surprise, particularly with Kyle, given his recent form for New Zealand in the number of the formats," Katich said in a video posted by RCB on Twitter.
"Obviously, he does not have that IPL experience but we have backed him in and from that perspective, he brings that skill set that no a lot of players have. He is a giant of a man and gets bounce with the new ball. And he can also handle the bat. So, he is an exciting young talent and there is a role there potentially for him depending on what balance of team we play with," he added.
He further stated: "Maxwell as well and we knew that he was going to be in demand. He is a highly experienced player and been in very good form in T20I for Australia. He also had pretty good BBL. So, he is that multi-purpose player that we were looking for. For these two, we knew that we had to spend a bit of money and we ended up doing that."
Katich also complimented Yuzvendra Chahal, saying that the wrist-spinner is a very skilful and smart bowler.
"He is always buzzing. He is a very skilful bowler and he is a very smart bowler as well. We saw that last year, we asked him to be our leading wicket-taker, we got that role for him by balancing the team the way we needed it and took a bit of heat off him, having to bowl in the powerplay like he has in the past. And he did not let us down, I think with 21 wickets, he was outstanding. He won us a number of games with the ball. Obviously, there is a high expectation from him," he said.
During the last year’s IPL in UAE, the Virat Kohli-led RCB side qualified to the play-offs for the first time since 2016.
According to Katich, RCB had a good tournament in 2020 but admitted that there is room for improvement.
"We had a good tournament (last year) but we know we got to get better to compete with the top two teams, that were Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals. I think we are pretty balanced. We are always looking for the best players for a certain role," he said.
Recently, Delhi Capitals suffered a huge blow as their spinning all-rounder Akshar Patel returned COVID-19 positive and is currently serving quarantine outside the team’s bio-bubble.
Talking about the same, Katich said his side needs to be ready if there is any setback.
"There is going to be injuries and then there is COVID-19 case that could impact teams. So, we have to manage it and make sure that we got that squad mentality that if something happens unexpectedly, injury or COVID-19 case, we got guys ready to go. We can only control what we can control and that's the way it is," he said.
RCB will begin their IPL 2021 campaign in the tournament opener against Mumbai Indians on April 9 at Chepauk.
