Even though disappointed by the team’s loss in the Qualifier 2 Royal Challengers Bangalore director of cricket Mike Hesson believes the side are on the right track and should soon be holding the elusive Indian Premier League trophy in their hands.
Giving Hesson a sense of encouragement and optimism is the development of RCB’s Indian core, which he marked as a “strong point” of the IPL 2022 campaign. The head of support staff feels RCB showcased a positive lack of over-dependence on their high-prize pre-season retentions.
RCB suffered a painful defeat at the hands of the Rajasthan Royals in front of a jam-packed Ahmedabad crowd in what was a virtual semi-final for the tournament, with the winner setting up a summit clash against Gujarat Titans at the same venue on May 29.
“If you rely solely on two or three players, you’re not going to make it to the playoffs. The beauty of our side has been we didn’t necessarily rely on all of our retained players,”
“We built a squad around our retained players, but we didn’t necessarily have to rely on them for every game. That was probably the most pleasing aspect, the fact that so many different players stood out.”
Hesson told the press after RCB’s IPL 2022 exit, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Hesson addressed the inconsistency and lack of impactful performances from all three of RCB’s big-name retentions ahead of the season: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, and Mohammed Siraj.
Siraj, who had earned himself a spot in this list after inspiring performances in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, failed to replicate those in IPL 2022. The Indian pacer never looked in any sort of control with his bowling, going for a very expensive 10.07 over 15 innings of the tournament for just nine wickets. He went for 0/31 off his two overs versus the Titans.
After a prolific IPL 2021, Maxwell was expected to finally produce a consistent set of performances for RCB. But the Australian maverick never quite turned up to the party. He made his 301 runs at a strike-rate of 169.10 but averaged only 27.36 over 13 innings. Against the Titans, Maxwell produced a cameo of 24 off 13, but RCB needed a more substantial knock from their middle-order stalwart.
Perhaps the most disappointing pre-season retention for RCB was their former skipper Virat, who had his third straight lacklustre season with the bat in hand. Kohli looked woefully out of sync and flow with his game, making his 341 runs from 16 innings at a strike-rate of only 115.98. RCB’s heftiest, 15-crore retention man switched from No.3 to opening the innings, but could never really regain his long lost mojo.
Hesson, however, took confidence from Kohli’s knock in RCB’s last league stage encounter versus the Titans – 73 off 54 at Wankhede – and said the great batter is on the right track as far as resurrecting his game is concerned. For Maxwell and Siraj, too, Hesson felt optimistic about the two cricketers coming up with a better run of games next season.
For Hesson, the way the likes of Rajat Patidar, Shahbaz Ahmed and Dinesh Karthik performed, along with the team’s overseas star cast Josh Hazlewood and Wanindu Hasaranga, augurs really well for RCB going forward.
Shahbaz, who played all the games, was RCB’s dependable utility cricketer with the ball and the bat, while Patidar ended the season after becoming the only Indian uncapped batter with a century in an IPL playoff. He followed his hundred in the Eliminator with a fifty on the night against the Titans.
Karthik revived himself with an outstanding season, scoring 330 runs at an average of 55 and strike-rate of 183.33. The 36-year-old was amazing with his end-overs hitting and earned himself an India comeback for the T20I series in June versus South Africa.
