Hesson pooh-poohs all of RCB's concerns

Mike Hesson has perfected the art of defending Royal Challengers Bangalore to a point where you begin to wonder if the team has any real concerns at all.

Sure, it’s his job as the director of cricket to make a hard sell, but the conviction with which he undermined any and all flaws was not lost on the gathering for the pre-match press conference on Tuesday, ahead of their game against Kolkata Knight Riders.

First, he shot down RCB’s concerns about a middling middle-order.

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“We are not at all concerned about the middler-order. Last year, our top-order struggled and the middle-order held us in good stead,” he explained.

“We have played five games at home, the top order was obviously going to do well, more opportunities for them to do well. We have a lot of confidence in them. They (referring to Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed in particular) have done well for us not so long ago.”

He then went on to defend RCB’s meek spin department, saying a situation hasn’t arisen where there is a need to look beyond Wanindu Hasaranga. The same when it came to the injury progress with Faf du Plessis and Harshal Patel.

Du Plessis and Harshal have subbed for each other, courtesy of the Impact Player rule, because the former is hampered by an injury to the intercostal muscles and the latter has hurt his pinky finger on the left hand.

“Faf is making very good progress, the risk of fielding, diving around, and getting injured is still there, so we won’t put him at risk if that’s the case. Harshal is fine, but once again, he’s fielding so he’s able to do that, but holding a bat and swinging it about is a bit different,” Hesson noted.

The only time Hesson shed character was when the topic of the efficiency of the Impact Player rule came up.

“If I was the Indian coach, I would be a little disappointed in the opportunities for Indian all-rounders. I think it makes it difficult for those batsmen who bowl one or two overs to get into the tournament. Equally, those finishers are batting a lot lower down the order,” he said.

“The positive is that they have all been incredibly close games,” he added.

Not that RCB are benefitting from the Impact Player rule in the case of Du Plessis and Harshal?