IPL 2020: Royal Challengers Bangalore Cannot Change Squad In Every Auction – Ashish Nehra
Nov 8, 2020 at 6:14 PM
Ashish Nehra, the former India pacer and former RCB bowling coach said that the franchise continues to over-rely on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, and they end up making too many changes at the auctions every year.
Royal Challengers Bangalore saw their campaign in the Indian Premier League 2020 come to an abrupt end as they failed to win IPL once again after they lost to SunRisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator on Friday.
Ashish Nehra: Bangalore Are Over Dependent On Virat Kohli And AB De Villiers
As the Virat Kohli-led franchise bows out of the competition, questions are being raised by critics about the mistakes that RCB made this year, which led to them losing six games on the trot before bowing out eventually.
Discussing the same during an interaction on Star Sports former India pacer and former RCB bowling coach Ashish Nehra said that the franchise continues to over-rely on the star duo and they end up making too many changes at the auctions every year.
“RCB are overly dependent on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. The entire team and the squad revolves around them which is not the right thinking as it is a game of 11 players,” Nehra said.
“You should have at least 5 players, you can look at any other franchise, Kings XI Punjab also have similar problems where they don’t have these two as well as they make even more changes. You need to keep 4-5 players with you.
“It will be interesting to see if Aaron Finch will be there with the team next year. These difficulties have been there. Last year they had Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis,” he added.
RCB had Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer and Tim Southee in the squad in 2019 but released them while the likes of Murugan Ashwin, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh and Quinton De Kock were in the squad in 2018. The likes of Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and Kedar Jadhav were included in RCB squad in 2017 before they went to KXIP and CSK.
Ashish Nehra: Bangalore Can’t Change Squad In Every Auction But Should Stick To Same Players At Least For 3 Years
After the elimination of Bangalore in the playoffs, RCB may not retain the likes of Moeen Ali who looked out of form scoring only 12 runs and picking 1 wicket in 3 matches. Similarly, Aaron Finch who managed only 268 runs in 12 matches may be shown the door after batting failure. Josh Phillipe who has 78 runs in 5 games and Dale Steyn may not be considered in forthcoming IPLs for RCB.
“You should let the same players be with you for 2-3 years other than those two. These two players and Chahal are always there in RCB. Apart from them, you will not see a fourth name,” Nehra said.
“Washington Sundar did not play last year because the team used to play a lot of matches in Bangalore and Moeen Ali was playing. But now when he got the big ground, he has also bowled well. Mohammed Siraj got hit a lot in Bangalore last year. He got the big grounds and he has also bowled well.”
“Otherwise from where will you get the players. You cannot change the entire squad in every auction, that apart from two or three, you will change the rest of the 16 to 18 players. They should stick to the same players for at least three years because making a team is a process in which they are very hasty,” Ashish Nehra signed off.
Parthiv Patel and Pawan Negi were not given a game to play, and Umesh Yadav featured in only 2 games as RCB failed in both batting and bowling. The injury to Chris Morris too came when RCB were struggling at a critical junction, and they were dealt a big blow.
Ashish Nehra reckons that RCB changes team too often. Ashish Nehra suggests that the team should build a core group of players and not to be over-dependent on the likes of Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers and Yuzvendra Chahal and should keep some more 4-5 players for upcoming IPLs.