Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were in red hot form in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 before the tournament was suspended indefinitely by the Board of Control for Cricket in India due the spike in the number of Covid cases in IPL’s bio-bubble. RCB struggled to get going in two successive seasons where the team finished at the bottom of the points table in IPL 2018 as well as 2019. In 2020, the franchises cranked up their performance up by several notches to qualify for the playoffs.
However, it was in IPL 2021 where the franchise took everybody by a surprise with a strong start to the tournament. For the first time since the inception of the tournament in 2008, RCB kicked off a new IPL season with a hat-trick of wins.
While fans mostly get to see the power-packed action once a new IPL season begins, a lot goes behind the scenes in terms of identifying talent and preparing for a new season. Speaking to timesnownews.com, RCB’s Head of Scouting Malolan Rangarajan shared details of how their work begins on the day an IPL season ends and the role played by his team in helping RCB build a strong squad by identifying talents from different parts of the country.
For the fans, give us a brief into the scouting process for RCB. How big is the team and how active is it in terms of traveling to different tournaments and identifying talents?
Once the last day of IPL is played, we start working immediately. This is a 6-8 month process that includes post-season review, we try to identify what the gaps are, identify potential areas to improve. Then we try to find talents for both the domestic and international players.
Currently, the RCB scouting unit is 3 of us including me and Sourabh Bhandekar. We have the brief from team management on exactly what the targets are. So we have a fair idea of which team has which type of players. We scout domestic tournaments like Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare trophy, and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. We are pushing the envelope further like this year we traveled to states to watch their selection matches and try to see talents who don’t end up playing for their states. This gives us a head start on other franchises.
What are those two to three things in a player which the management particularly looks for?
The way we go about our scouting is completely different. We don’t have 1-2 things to look at but a five-fold process. We look at their skill, physicality, mental ability, how they perform under pressure, their upbringing. So there are 5-6 different things we look to. As far as domestic scouting is concerned, we look at players who have the potential to play a particular role. If we find someone who is ready to play a role, we will be happy to bring them on board but ideally more often than not the talent from domestic cricket is one that has the potential to do a role.
After players are identified, what’s the process followed by RCB?
As far as domestic cricket is concerned, we have a three-tier system. One is about the players who we think can go on to play for RCB. It is further divided into short-term targets and medium to long-term targets. The second project is the Hinterland scouting where we go to the Hinterland part of the grassroots of each state. From the talents we find in domestic cricket, we try to bring them to our net bowler project. Very soon, we are going to come up with the fourth baby – we are trying to set up some sort of system for batsmen. Hopefully, we will have that soon.
Apart from the scouting team, what role does Virat Kohli play in approving the talent spotted by the team?
Even though Virat is busy with cricket, we have a very good way the things are run. The scouting team reports to Mike (Hesson). Mike is in touch with Virat. There is constant communication between Virat and us with regards to whenever he has the time and likewise when we are watching international cricket, we send across our thoughts to Mike, Virat, and Kado (Simon Katich). So Virat has been extremely hands-on and he is aware of each and every pick we have made. He has been brilliant.
