‘Supporting Mohammed Siraj With More Bowling Options Real Priority’: RCB Director of Cricket – News18

Royal Challengers Bangalore released a host of top fast bowlers ahead of the IPL 2024 auction and will be looking to build a strong group of pacers to support Mohammed Siraj.

RCB failed to qualify for the playoffs last season and released the likes of Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, David Willey, Wayne Parnell and Siddarth Kaul among others.

Mo Bobat, who was named RCB Director of Cricket earlier this year, says for them the ‘real priority’ is to build a strong pool of bowlers.

“Mohammad Siraj is a core part of what we do so supporting Siraj with some more bowling options including overseas bowling options is going to be a real priority for us moving forward. Then we have got a core of local spinners, which I think is quite strong. Some of them got some opportunities over the last year or two and they might play more leading roles moving forward,” Bobat said.

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“We have got a strong core of retaining players, and we have got a very powerful top order. Part of the decision-making that we had around our player release decisions was to try and strengthen the middle order and bringing Cameron Green was a fantastic move,” he added.

Bobat explained the qualities they are looking in the fast bowlers to be part of their squad.

“Naturally cricket tends to get attracted to and gravitate towards things like the control and the lateral movement of fast bowlers but what we should be doing is identifying players that have the pace and the balance,” Bobat said. “The reason I draw that distinction is you can teach someone to ball accurately, you can teach someone to develop craft and lateral movement but it is not that easy to teach pace or manufacture balance because you are talking about their release height and their physicality. So understanding that distinction between which of those attributes we need to identify and which of those things we can teach over time is a really important distinction.”

Bobat also underscored the significance of fostering the right performance environment and culture for players to showcase their capabilities. “I am committed to a long-term project here. We have a fantastic captain in Faf, and an excellent group of senior players with the experience of Virat, Maxi (Maxwell), and DK (Dinesh Karthik). So the ingredients are really strong,” he said.

“The next objective is to make sure we create the right performance, and culture where the players can really go and showcase what they are capable of, and go out and entertain the public. If we commit to our processes, play a brand of cricket that is aggressive, and have those moments where we’re prepared to be brave it will get the fans going,” he added.