Daniel Vettori the head coach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore has come out expressing that the team is very fortunate to have the leadership that Brendon Mccullum brings to the table. RCB got the ex Newzealand captain for 3.6 cr in the IPL auction that concluded in January. It is the leaders that, Vettori stated, he liked his team to be built around, "We were really desperate to have those leaders within the group because we probably had just AB and Virat last year,”.
Further reiterating the trustworthiness and the ability Mccullum brings to RCB Vettori said, “He's going to be a confidant to Virat, because of his leadership skills. He brings a style of play we really want at RCB. He's a great fielder too. Now we've added a few more leaders – Brendon, Parthiv Patel, and Quinton de Kock, who we think is a leader as well.”
Vettori also explained his happiness to have got young Washington Sundar in the squad, “There was a considered effort to assemble a strong group of domestic bowlers. We'd seen enough of Washington Sundar (to expect the performance he delivered in Sri Lanka). He’s bowled in the Powerplay pretty much his whole T20 career. We'll look to utilize that as well.”
The most noticeable absentee from the RCB squad is Chris Gayle, of course. The team decided to move on and didn't retain him and not bid for him in the auction too, regarding this Vettori was being quite politically correct, “You look at all our batting records; Chris dominates them all. So we know how important a part of our franchise he was, It’s just that in the new auction, the team decided to go a different way. He will always be an RCB player in our minds and for the people of Bangalore.”The real reason likely is that Gayle is not the same force as he used to be.
Vettori wanted to make the point clear that the team has left their disastrous last season, where they finished last, behind them. Looking ahead of the new season he said, “We had a lot of injuries and we had a wicket that we didn’t adapt to, the wicket was very different to what we were used to and what we had built the squad around. The pitch seems to have improved this season. The guys trained on one of the main wickets yesterday and they were really happy with it. Touch-wood, it will be like the Chinnaswamy of old.”
Finally, he touched upon the team's captain Virat Kohli's presence to the team and how the six-week break coming into the tournament has helped him coming into the season, “He was resting from games, but not from his training or his fitness regime, You can tell he's worked really hard on all of that. He's had a chance to step away from the pressure of playing for India. He's desperate to do well all the time, and generally, that's for his country. Brendon already talks about being inspired by how hard he works. It's a real example to everyone.”
