Faf du Plessis addresses ‘home record’ as a big factor ahead of IPL 2024 Auction

Ahead of the much-anticipated IPL 2024 Auction in Dubai, RCB captain Faf du Plessis shared some valuable insights on the focus areas for the franchise, primarily zoning in on how they can improve their record at home.

RCB, who play at their home matches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, won three and lost four of their matches at the ground in IPL 2023, and Faf was of the opinion that the think-tank is looking at picking players who can help better that record.

Speaking on a pre-auction edition of RCB Bold Diaries, Faf said, “After last season, we looked at the season and we felt like we needed to improve at home. One of the things that we did really well was succeed away from Chinnaswamy. So we went away and put our heads together and what that looks like to be better at home and how can we get better and in what ways can we improve?”

He continued, “One of those areas was power in the middle and then that’s the style of playing, type of team that we want to put together. Without giving away too much tactical information that we’ve spoken about, it’s definitely the auction and the process of the last two months has been solely around planning to be better at home and the type of bowlers and batsman that will be successful at home.”

The dynamic opener also opened up on his relationship with newly appointed head coach, Andy Flower and Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat - both of whose services were roped in a few months ago.

Faf said, “Obviously when Andy got appointed as head coach, I’ve got a good relationship with him so wanted to hit the ground running with him and with Mo, luckily his context there with Mo from last season with RCB. So the three of us really wanted to build a strong relationship in that leadership group, so we spent a lot of time talking about RCB and where we wanted to take the franchise. So we’ve invested a lot of time but it’s been really good, I’ve enjoyed the process leading up to everything.”