NEWS
Follow UsIn the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) last season, no team took fewer powerplay wickets than Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who managed just 9 in 8 matches at an average of 45.4.
However, the franchise’s head coach Luke Williams believes things will be different this time around, with the franchise adding the experienced Kate Cross to partner Renuka Thakur.
Renuka had a season to forget with the new ball last season, picking no wickets in the first six overs, but bounced back strongly towards the end of the year, picking six powerplay wickets in the home series against England. She had a comparatively quieter series against Australia, but in six T20Is post WPL 2023, the right-armer has picked 7 wickets at an average of 14.6 with the new ball.
With the experienced Cross all set to partner her with the new ball, Williams believes the pair will be a handful for sides, up front, in the forthcoming season.
“We’re really excited to have two bowlers who swing the ball in different directions. But they’re both world class swing bowlers. They’re going to prove a real handful for the opposition with that swing,” Williams said ahead of RCB’s first game of the season versus UP Warriorz.
“If you can get an early wicket, we can put pressure on the opposition and it is so important. So, we’re certainly looking at different options with how we go about our powerplay bowling. We were really keen to keep working on it and to make a real impact,” he added.
RCB entered WPL 2023 as one of the favorites but ended up having a season to forget as they finished second-to-bottom, picking up just two wins in eight matches. It was on the back of the disappointing campaign that Williams, who has won a WBBL title with Adelaide Strikers, was roped in as the side’s new head coach.
Williams, who incidentally happened to work with the franchise’s skipper Smriti Mandhana at Southern Brave in The Hundred, asserted that the think-tank is keen to right the wrongs. The 44-year-old insisted that the team has taken a lot of ‘learnings’ from the disappointing campaign in 2023.
“I’ve been fortunate to have spent a fair bit of time with Smriti through my involvement at the Southern Brave (the Hundred team) as an assistant coach, and we’ve had lots of conversations around the learnings and experiences from the last (WPL) season, both as a team and as individuals. I think we’ve really taken on board some of those learnings (from previous year),” Williams said.
“This time Smriti and others have invested time with our players, and our senior players have been fantastic working with our young players and getting to know them and everyone is really starting to feel really comfortable and confident in the environment. We’re looking forward to taking those learnings into this year,” said Williams.
Speaking of the franchise skipper Mandhana, who has had a string of consistent scores in the last couple of months, Williams claimed that the 27-year-old currently finds herself in a very good headspace, and is raring to go ahead of the new season.
"She’s practising really well. She’s in a really confident and happy space with her cricket and the leadership,” Williams said of Mandhana.
“Obviously, there’s responsibility with captaining and opening the batting. But she’s got plenty of support from the team with lots of experienced seniors to help her and trying to really separate the two roles.”
RCB kick-off their 2024 campaign against the UP Warriorz on Saturday (February 24). RCB, this time around, will be playing each of their first five matches at their home ground, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
