Mo Bobat on RCB’s IPL Run-In: The Group’s in a good place, and we’re ready to finish strong

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Bengaluru: As the IPL resumes after an unexpected mid-season pause, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, offers insight into the team’s mindset, player updates, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Reflecting on the break, Bobat acknowledged the unusual nature of the last few days — a mix of logistical work and much-needed rest. “For many of our lads, it was a well-earned break,” he said, adding that players returned to training with energy and focus, suggesting that the group is in a good mental and physical space heading into the final stretch. Excerpts from the interview:

On the Approach for the last few games as IPL resumes

It was an unusual few days for everybody. For me personally, there was lots to sort out and it was a busy few days. For many of our lads, actually, it was a well-earned rest. So quite a few of them enjoyed getting home, seeing family, even if it’s just for a couple of days and then coming back again. And, actually, we were saying even yesterday, the boys came in with a lot of energy for their practice. So as far as the group are concerned, they look to be in a really good place. So, we are pretty pleased about that.

Updates on Rajat Patidar and Josh Hazlewood

Rajat’s going well. He had an injury to his hand, but he’s been building up ever so slowly. For him personally, probably the disruption gave him a few more days just to get through some of that early healing, and for the swelling to go down, and for him to get used to picking up a bat again. He’s practiced the last few days and he’s going well.

With Josh, he’s our only player not here at the moment. He’s recovering from his shoulder niggle that he had. He’s doing that with Cricket Australia. Our medical team and their medical teams have been liaising on what that detail looks like and he’s just taking that day by day and he’s trying to improve his shot.

On the challenges that were presented due to the unforeseen extension of the IPL season

I’m sure all the teams experienced the same thing. Once your players have gone home and once the dates have been extended, that creates a bit of uncertainty. We spoke quite a lot with our overseas guys even before they went. Most of them were pretty adamant that they were keen to come back and finish the job off.

We’ve had a good season so far. They want to come back and do that. The extending of the season presented some challenges. I had to have a few conversations with some of the national team governing bodies. Obviously, we’ll lose Jacob Bethel after a couple of games and we’ll lose Lungi Ngidi after a couple of games. There’s an obvious impact there.

In time, we’ll give a little bit of thought to those replacements and we’ll try and look at who might be able to come in to shore up those positions. Other than those couple of guys, nothing else was disrupted too much.

On not having a left-hander at the top of the order

My own personal philosophy is that I don’t worry that much about right and left-hand combinations.

I know different teams view that differently. I think that since we’ve had the impact player rule and every team has six or seven bowlers, it almost doesn’t matter if you’ve got right and left-handers. It just changes the bowling combination.

I think in an 11 vs 11 line-up, sometimes having that left-hander in your batting order can mean that you can put one of their bowlers under pressure. I see that less as a thing now. We’ve seen so many times during this competition that a certain bowler type hasn’t bowled their overs because there was a left-hander at the crease and they just get through fine.

I don’t focus on that too much. We’re quite clear on our pattern of play and the things that we want to focus on. It’s obviously advantageous to have some left-handers if you’ve got a short boundary one side or something like that, but it’s not a huge area of concern for me.

On Virat’s Test retirement and any impact or conversations within the team?

First thing to say is, Virat Kohli’s just business as usual. There’s enough of the public and nation’s attention on him, he doesn’t want any more of that. He just wants to get on with business, he is usually ambitious about what we can achieve with RCB. That’s his focus.

I would like to say though that he should be incredibly proud of what he’s done as a Test player for India. RCB as a franchise, we are all incredibly proud of what every one of our players does in an India shirt, but in particular him. To play 120 plus test matches and to score nearly 10,000 runs is no mean feat.

Also, as a captain, his record, 60% win percentage or something like that as captain, again, no mean feat. I can also talk from my previous role as an Englishman working in the English system. He was someone you never wanted to play against.

He was always the batter you wanted to get out. You knew that if he was either in the pavilion to come or at the crease, you were in trouble. Some of my fondest memories of watching Test cricket involve him.

I’ll never forget the 2018 India series in England. The Test at Edgbaston, watching James Anderson and him do battle like two gladiators. I think James Anderson must have bowled nine overs on the trot at him. It was two of the best players in the world doing their thing. That’s what he’s about. He’s about those special moments, those inspiring moments.

He did that as captain, as a player. We’re all really proud of him. I’m sure the fans will show him lots of love this week when they see him again. But just to go back to where I started, he’s business as usual. We all are. He’s spoken to a few of us about things in the last few weeks, but you know what he’s like. He’s pretty clear-minded, so he’s clear on what he wants to do.

On the white jersey chatter from the fans

It’s not something we’ve thought about or talked about too much. I’ve certainly noticed that the fans have been talking about that a little bit, but I don’t think it’ll have much of an impact on our play.

On the weather factor and if it affects preparations?

It certainly does influence our preparation. We’ve deliberately practised in the afternoon because we were concerned about rain this evening. Those things you can control. When you get to game day, you can’t control it.

You want your players to feel as clear and relaxed as possible. You trust them to make decisions in the moment, regardless of what happens. We don’t overthink any of those things.

If the game is rain-affected, it’s rain-affected. It’s not something any of us control, so we don’t really think too much about that, but it might influence our preparation. Hopefully, for the fans and for everybody, we get to play our game because all we want to do is play well and put on a bit of a show.

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