IPL 2021: Royal Challengers Bangalore director Mike Hesson indicates tweaks in the team

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Dubai, November 7: Despite promising much in the initial phase of the IPL 2020, the Royal Challengers Bangalore's campaign tapered off in the second half of the tournament, where they lost five matches in a row to bow out of the tournament in the Eliminator. The decisive blow was their six-wicket defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday (November 6) that ended the campaign of RCB this year.

Mike Hesson, the Director of Cricket of RCB, said the team will require some tweaks going into the IPL 2021 and they have begun the initial round of talks. But Hesson said the nature of the auction - full scale or mini - will determine the tactics in adding or off-loading a player.

"We have already had initial discussions, we will let the dust settle first, we will gather a lot of ideas, we also need to find facts whether there is a small auction or big auction next year, the core group is good but we do need a little bit of tweaking, the middle order cannot be fixed just by overseas players. It is always a balancing act in terms of how we do it, that is why the development of (Devdutt) Padikkal and Washington Sundar is so important for us, regardless of it being a big or small auction," said Hesson during virtual press conference.

Hesson detailed how some of the younger players in the squad like Devdutt or Navdeep Saini took a lot of responsibility and was pleased at that.

"I think the performance of young Indian players is the biggest promising sign for us - the key to any successful franchise in the IPL are your Indian players. The fact that we have been able to provide a consistent opportunity to the likes of Padikkal, Saini, Sundar, Siraj just to name a few, they have been exceptional and they are growing their game. They are going to give us the backbone of this team going forward. We need a core group of Indians and we have started to develop a bigger core, that's promising," said Hesson.

There were times when the Royal Challengers Bangalore scored runs at a good clip in the Power Plays and in the death overs. But at times, they struggled to force the pace in the middle overs, affecting the eventual total.

Hesson said the slide was gradual as the RCB were placed second in the middle-over scoring rate in the first eight matches of the IPL 2020.

"This was a season of two halves, the strike rate of our middle-order in the first eight matches, we were second best in the competition. It was not an issue for the entirety of the tournament. It manifested itself in our last few matches, we were not able to adapt quickly, we obviously batted first in our last five matches and it provided a different challenge to us, we provided a number of opportunities to different players in that position and it is fair to say that we did not get the right balance especially towards the backend. It is something we need to keep looking at," said Hesson.

This was Hesson's first season with Royal Challengers Bangalore and the New Zealand man said he has gathered a good awareness about the team and its need and the knowledge will stand him in stead in IPL 2021.

"The one thing that Simon and I have managed to achieve this year is to understand the players and have first-hand knowledge of them. We have gotten to know them intimately, we have an idea of the type of players we would like to have on our side, we have gathered a lot of good information. We know we have some areas where we would need a little bit of tweaking, but the actual base of our side is very good. We surely need to add some finishing touches," he added.