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During the auctions for the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) held last year, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) turned out to be quite active with some exciting recruitments.
The Bengaluru-based franchise added Australian captain, Aaron Finch, in their arsenal. RCB also decided to strengthen their bowling and balance of the squad with the recruitment of Chris Morris, Kane Richardson and Isuru Udana.
Now, RCB head coach Simon Katich has opened up about the reason why the franchise decided to shell out INR 4.4 crores for the services of Finch.
“Obviously, when we identified players whom we were looking to bring in at the auction, we were looking at experienced international cricketers at the top of their game. Obviously, being a small auction, there were only a certain number of players available but they were some outstanding options at the auctions last year,” Katich told India Today.
“Aaron Finch was high on that list, given what he has been able to achieve for Australia as captain but also a player over the last number of years. He is one of the top-ranked T20I batsmen in the world. He is a very good player of spin. The other thing is he brings leadership to a group.”
RCB – yet to clinch maiden IPL title
RCB, along with Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Delhi Capitals (formerly: Delhi Daredevils), have failed to clinch their maiden IPL title, despite taking part in all twelve seasons.
Under Kohli, RCB’s lopsided balance in favour of batsmen has proved costly for them. With the presence of Finch and AB de Villiers, Katich reckoned that Kohli’s workload would be shared effectively.
“It’s not just Aaron Finch. We have got a number of senior players. Obviously AB de Villiers has been at RCB for a number of years now and done very well over the years. He is a senior player who is going to provide that leadership as well for Virat and any help that he needs.”
“Virat Kohli has obviously got a huge amount of leadership experience with the Indian team and RCB and hopefully the core group around him will be able to take the load off him from playing point of view also when it comes to getting the group to gel and bonding with the group,” Katich concluded.
