IPL 2024: ‘You need highly skillful bowlers at Chinnaswamy’ – Andy Flower

Royal Challengers Bengaluru head coach Andy Flower feels they need highly skillful bowlers at their home ground of M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru in the IPL. RCB had a win-loss ratio of 4-3 while playing at their home venue in IPL 2024 before they crashed out of the tournament after their four-wicket loss against Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Wednesday. 

Chinnaswamy being a small ground and has a belter of a pitch, is a nightmare for the bowlers. Scores above 200 runs are a norm and it is not easy to defend against a well-settled batter.

RCB had fast bowlers like Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, and Lockie Ferguson but didn’t have enough firepower in the spin department in IPL 2024.

Meanwhile, RCB posted 172-8 against RR after they were put into bat by Sanju Samson and Flower admitted it was a below-par score.

“I think the Royals bowlers bowled really well. I thought some of their plans worked against our batsmen and so I give them a lot of credit for that. And I think we were a little short on the run side. You know when there’s dew you need a little more than 170. So I thought our bowlers and our fielders really fought hard in the middle but we were just slightly below par today.”

The former Zimbabwean captain added it is too early to talk about the IPL 2025 mega auction planning but emphasized that they need quality bowlers for their home ground.

“As far as recruitment for next year it’s a little bit early to talk about that quite frankly. I don’t really want to talk about that stuff yet. I’m still digesting what’s happened in this game. So I do think though as part answer to your question the Chinnaswamy has some particular qualities that we need to be able to exploit. You certainly need highly skillful bowlers at Chinnaswamy,” said Flower.

“Simply pace is not going to be the answer there. You need skillful intelligent bowlers and people that can bowl to really specific plans at Chinnaswamy. I think we’ve all seen how the power game has affected T20 cricket recently. So on the batting front you certainly need to recruit batsmen with that sort of power that can keep up that sort of tempo,” he added.

Flower also lauded his team for bouncing back after a horrid run in the first half of the season. RCB made it to the playoffs after winning six games on the trot.

“I think our guys have fought brilliantly over the last 10 weeks. To come back from our first half of the tournament was a great effort and I certainly would pay tribute to Faf du Plessis for his captaincy, and Faf and Virat for the way they’ve led from the front both as role models as professional sports people. But also the way they played. I think they’ve both really been great role models for everyone else and then the rest of the boys fought really hard to get us back into this tournament.”