Day 3 at the Royal Challengers Bangalore Training Camp

Royal Challengers Bangalore training camp continued their nine-day conditioning camp at the Centre for Sports Science (CSS) facility in Chennai. The veteran Australia all-rounder, Daniel Christian, came out of his mandatory quarantine and joined the rest of the team. Leading up to the start of the season opener on April 9th, the coaches had planned a series of tasks for the players and conducted an initial assessment of their progress.

Dan Christian is returning to the Bengaluru-based side and is looking forward to playing alongside Yuvendra Chahal this season.

“Great to be out of quarantine for start, and then now to be now to be back around the team; I’m thrilled to be here. And looking forward to getting into it particularly, Mr Chahal ripping bloke watching a lot on TV, I haven't played with him yet can't wait to go. I’m just really looking forward to getting into it and spending time with everyone,” said Daniel Christian on Bold Diaries.

On RCB’s squad for IPL 2021

“We've got a really well-balanced squad and I think, we've got a squad that suits a variety of conditions which you try and get when you're putting a squad together. But, I think we've been able to achieve it this year obviously, playing at a lot of different venues, so we need that flexibility. I really like the mix of established international players and a bit of youth, and a bit of excitement as well,” said Mike Hesson

Sridharan Sriram, the team's Batting and Spin Bowling Coach and a former Tamil Nadu player, explained what the team can expect from the Chepauk wicket. Given his expertise, Sriram emphasised the importance of spinners bringing out their A-game more on the traditional Chepauk track.

“I think once we get to Chepauk, we'll get a better idea and now the Chepauk wickets have changed there's both red and black soil in the same ground so for us it's having to go there, assess the conditions. Having me is an advantage because I can be able to read the wickets faster hopefully, numbers point more towards finger spin so pace on the ball is going to be important with spin. I think a spin is going to play a role especially with the heat traditionally and Chepauk. Even in the test series against England, we saw how much the wicket spun and even in the IPL traditionally wickets have spun; a power score is around 150 or so,” said Sriram.

The Australia Spin Bowling Coach also praised the young Indian players Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, and Navdeep Saini for asserting their ability as top cricketers when given the chance to represent their country. Sriram hails Yuzvendra Chahal as an "old pro" who has been very consistent throughout his IPL career for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He also shared some interesting feedback from RCB's newest signing, Glenn Maxwell, who admires Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers' batting; is very excited to join the team.

“In the last six months, Washi's rise has been phenomenal the confidence, and I have spoken to him through Australia coming back, he's been in touch so the confidence level that he's got I think, he's been phenomenal. Even for guys like Saini and Siraj the way they see themselves is completely different to what they were last year. Chahal’s like the old pro, we know what we'll get from the channel is very consistent. I spent a lot of time with Maxi recently, and he's so pumped up because AB (de Villiers) and Virat (Kohli) have both been someone he looks up to, and he's just raring to play with them. He just wants to soak in and learn; give his best for the team. So that's the feedback I’ve got from him (Maxwell) as well very excited for Maxi to be here, he's as keen as ever his fate is running to go so be very exciting,” added Sriram.

Sanjay Bangar, the Batting Consultant, talked about his assessment with respect to the uncapped Indian domestic players and how are they progressing in the camp.

“A lot of positives and I could clearly see the strengths of each and every batsman so there's somebody like a Pavan (Deshpande) who's got a good reach, Sachin Baby again coming at the back end and playing the role of a finisher really well, understands his game can use the angle really well. Azharuddeen again a special talent, because he has the ability to hit those boundaries and sixes and he can do that at any phases, that is his strength. Rajat (Patidar) very compact player, he has his own strengths looks very good on the back-foot. KS Bharat seems also to be a good all-around cricketer in the sense that he is, of course, used to open the innings but he's also developing his game around the spin. And as far as Suyash (Prabhudessai) is concerned, he is somebody who can really play shots all around the wicket and he seems to have gone one notch up; when we saw, whatever we saw of him in Bengaluru, so obviously he's also worked hard during this interim period. So, from all those aspects I think these are encouraging signs for RCB,” concluded Sanjay Bangar.