Mike Hesson harps on consistency for Royal Challengers Bangalore

Kohli has made his life a tad easier by announcing not long ago that he will open the innings

Mike Hesson did well to reveal nothing of consequence in close to thirty minutes of the season-opening press conference, but Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Director of Cricket Operations did disclose that the team has once again built its batting line-up around the core of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Though that was expected given how successful and loyal the duo has been for the franchise, one can’t be faulted for expecting a different approach, especially since the 13 prior seasons of the Indian Premier League have not yielded a title.

Sure, they made the final thrice since inception and were able to lift themselves off the bottom of the heap to make the playoffs last season, but this oft-criticised 'over-reliance' on the duo has been an unrelenting rash. And RCB don’t seem to concern themselves with it much.

“We don’t want to reveal how we are going to use the AB-Kohli partnership. You will find out in time,” said the Kiwi during a virtual interaction on Wednesday.

“We want to maximise both their skills and work the balance of the batting order around them. That’s why someone like Max (Glenn Maxwell) helps. He gives us the flexibility to play around with the combination a bit.”

Obviously, that’s entirely dependent on which Maxwell turns up at the 14th edition of the mega-event. Maxwell has featured in 82 games since his 2012 debut and has accumulated 1,505 runs at an average of 22.13, a chunk of those runs coming in the 2014 edition where he ended up with 552. Clearly, he isn’t halfway as consistent as his bank account might suggest.

It’s difficult to see why teams have annually disbursed huge sums to acquire his 'impact', the latest of which was the whopping Rs 14.25 crore spent by RCB.

“He fits what we require in the middle-order. We have lost games in the past because we didn’t handle our middle-order well. We were looking at filling our squad with high-impact players and he’s definitely one of them. He brings tremendous experience to the unit. Also, he’s a good bowler, a fantastic leader and a very good leader to help the core leadership group.”

RCB doesn’t need more leaders than they always seems to have. What they need instead is players who can be proficient with their skills consistently. Hesson conceded that consistency had been a problem through the years and though some of those concerns were ironed out last year, they were still a thorn in RCB’s progress.

"We started well last year because we really wanted to. That was the focus but we weren’t consistent. We have to learn to be consistent throughout the campaign. We don’t want to peter out," he said.

One way of achieving that, Hesson reckoned, was by bringing in more like-for-like players as replacements should the need arise. "We still have the core of seven to eight players as we did last season, but we released that we needed more players to be able to make straight swaps. That was our focus during the auction," he revealed.

Even as Hesson fixates on horses-for-courses combinations for several eventualities, Kohli made his life a tad easier by announcing not long ago that he would open the innings.

"He’s in fine touch," said Hesson, referring to Kohli’s form during the limited-overs leg of India’s series against England. "But while form is important, it’s also about how much confidence he can carry forward. Knowing him, he will be charged up. We can’t wait to have him on board."