Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s head coach, Andy Flower, said that, RCB entry to the IPL playoffs is not ideal but he wants that team must be ready for any probability.
If RCB want to play Qualifier 1, then they have to finish in the top two of the IPL points table, Qualifier 1 mostly features top scorer two teams of the tournament. Their last league match is scheduled on May 27, against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). After that, they will only have 48hours to play the Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad.
“That’s not your ideal lead-in to a qualifying game,” Flower said ahead of Friday’s ‘home’ fixture against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Lucknow. “We’ll finish late, get to bed quite late, then travel 28th and play 29th, but that’s the situation in front of us. The best way is for everyone to take in the reality of that, deal with it and we’ll be ready for that game.”
RCB last played their match on May 3. After the restart of IPL on May 17, the game between RCB and KKR was stopped due to heavy rainfall forecast in Bengaluru, IPL moved that game to Lucknow which gave two more trainings sessions to the RCB.
“We’re disappointed not to be playing tomorrow’s game in Bangalore, but we’ve had to roll with that,” he said. “We trained in Bangalore yesterday around lunch time, flew here, have a training session tonight [Thursday] and we’ll be ready to go.”
“The boys have worked really well over the entire season, in the build-up to the first match. They’ve played some superb cricket through the season. Yes, we’ve had a little break now but for a couple of our players, that [break] has been a healthy thing.”
“Rajat Patidar for one, it’s given his right hand a little bit of time to settle after getting a bad knock. He’s fit to bat. Which is great. [Phil] Salt was sick for a while, it’s given him a little chance to get home, recharge his batteries, and he’s back at full force.”
Ekana stadium is not a new place for the Flower, back in 2022 and 2023 he trained Lucknow Super Giants for two IPL seasons. He’s sure about the performance of RCB that they step forward with their marvellous record of six wins in consecutive six matches this season.
“As you know we struggled in our home conditions initially, the pitch was a little bit different to what we were used to,” he said. “It took us a little while to adjust our game plan; we did adjust and won a couple of important games at home [against CSK and RR]. We’ve got a good record away, been able to flex for away conditions really well, backing our players to do that again tomorrow. We’re okay playing away.”
RCB also made some changes in their squad by signing Zimbabwe’s Blessing Muzarabani and New Zealand’s Tim Seifert as short-term replacements. They are also hopeful for the return of Josh Hazlewood, as he is recovered from a shoulder injury in Australia.
