Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Simon Katich has lavishly praised Australia's Glenn Maxwell saying that the latter is a multi-purpose player the franchise had been looking for.
RCB went all out for Maxwell and New Zealand's Kyle Jamieson in the mini-auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL), held in February. The franchise bought Maxwell for Rs 14.25 crore while Jamieson was sold for Rs 15 crore.
"It's interesting, the process and the dynamic of the small options and things can get out of control when there are three or four teams beating on to select a few players for a certain role. We estimated that was probably going to be the case for four or five quick bowlers around the place, given who is looking for what. It did not come as a huge surprise, particularly with Kyle, given his recent form for New Zealand in the number of the formats," Katich said in a video posted by RCB on Twitter.
"Obviously, he does not have that IPL experience but we have backed him in and from that perspective, he brings that skill set that no a lot of players have. He is a giant of a man and gets bounce with the new ball. And he can also handle the bat. So, he is an exciting young talent and there is a role there potentially for him depending on what balance of team we play with," he added.
He further stated: "Maxwell as well and we knew that he was going to be in demand. He is a highly experienced player and been in very good form in T20I for Australia. He also had pretty good BBL. So, he is that multi-purpose player that we were looking for. For these two, we knew that we had to spend a bit of money and we ended up doing that."
IPL 2021 is slated to commence on April 9 with Mumbai Indians and RCB locking horns in the tournament opener. Katich also praised Yuzvendra Chahal saying that the spinner is a very skilful and smart bowler.
"He is always buzzing. He is a very skilful bowler and he is a very smart bowler as well. We saw that last year, we asked him to be our leading wicket-taker, we got that role for him by balancing the team the way we needed it and took a bit of heat off him, having to bowl in the powerplay like he has in the past. And he did not let us down, I think with 21 wickets, he was outstanding. He won us a number of games with the ball. Obviously, there is a high expectation from him," he said.
The head coach said his side had a good tournament last year but admitted that there is room for improvement. "We had a good tournament (last year) but we know we got to get better to compete with the top two teams, that were Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals. I think we are pretty balanced. We are always looking for the best players for a certain role," Katich said.
Amid the rise in coronavirus cases in the country, the Delhi-based franchise suffered a huge blow on Saturday as all-rounder Axar Patel tested positive for COVID-19. Katich said his side needs to be ready if there is any setback, be it someone getting injured or contracting coronavirus.
"There is going to be injuries and then there is COVID-19 case that could impact teams. So, we have to manage it and make sure that we got that squad mentality that if something happens unexpectedly, injury or COVID-19 case, we got guys ready to go. We can only control what we can control and that's the way it is," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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