The wise men who orchestrated history

Ahmedabad: It’s a no-brainer that to succeed in a tournament as demanding as the IPL, perhaps the toughest T20 tournament in the world, teamwork is essential. Not just from the players performing as a unit but from the men behind the scenes who actually go about piecing the team together brick by brick. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru aced it on that front, which saw them finally win that elusive crown in its 18th time of asking.

It all started with the appointment of the calm yet calculative Andy Flower as the head coach in August 2023. The Zimbabwean, who won the T20 World Cup with England in 2010 and achieved three back-to-back Ashes series wins between 2009 and 2013, is one of the wisest men in the sport but barely walks around with the aura that comes with that reputation. During Flower’s appointment, RCB also announced that it would not renew the deal of incumbent Director of Cricket Mike Hesson.

Then, ahead of the 2024 season, the Royal Challengers brought in Mo Bobat as the Director of Cricket, mostly based on Flower’s suggestion. Bobat had brought a revolution in England’s white-ball cricket as its performance director along with then skipper Eoin Morgan, which saw the Three Lions win the 2019 ODI World Cup and T20 World Cup three years later. 

Flower, having worked with Bobat for a few years during his stint as England head coach from 2009-2014, saw something special in the Englishman. The duo targeted the 2025 mega auctions as the opportunity to build a team in their own vision, with the main agenda being stringing together a cohesive unit where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Months before the auctions, RCB signed the understated yet intelligent Dinesh Karthik, an immensely popular character in the dressing room, as the mentor cum batting coach. With Malolan Rangarajan already on board as spin coach, both Flower and Bobat had the boardroom team they needed to have a crack at the auctions.

They drew a lot of flak for failing to procure Indian superstars like Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul on the opening day. They just bought five players, and one wondered what the men at the table were doing. But Flower and Co had a definitive plan, and that was to build a team minus the superstar culture. On the second day, they went all-out, but acquisitions like Jitesh Sharma for Rs 11 crore, Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Rs 10.75 cr and Krunal Pandya for Rs 5.75 cr were met with criticism. Questions like why splurge so much on inconsistent Jitesh and ‘old’ players Krunal and Bhuvneshwar were asked.

RCB’s think-tank, however, exuded confidence. They felt they had assembled a team that could succeed in any condition and situation. They had a couple of superstars, a bunch of hungry youngsters, and a few seasoned heads… a perfect amalgamation. And it turned out that way as RCB kept churning out one match winner after another in a season where they won all their matches on the road — the game they lost against SRH in Lucknow was their designated home game — to leave everyone spellbound.

Flower acknowledged the role of his support staff in the triumph. “Mo Bobat is a very impressive man. I’ve worked with him a little bit with the England Cricket Board when we both worked for England. And for such a young man to have such insight, knowledge, and drive, he’s incredibly impressive,” Flower said in the post-match press conference.

“Some of our assistant coaches, like DK (Karthik), Malo (Rangarajan), Richard Halsall and Omkar Salvi, have been outstanding. And I think having that Indian insight and knowledge in our coaching staff has been really important for this campaign this year.”

Flower then called out Karthik for special praise. “DK particularly, I think as mentor and batting specialist, he’s been brilliant. He’s got great energy. He’s got a smile on his face most of the time. I think it’s quite a transition to make from playing to coaching, and he’s done it amazingly well. It’s very obvious that he’s had an impact, certainly on the batting group. But I think he’s certainly had an impact within the leadership of the management group and the coaching group and with the wider team.”