Key is knowing the brand of cricket you want RCB to play, and knowing what you don’t want - Malolan Rangarajan

Royal Challengers Bengaluru head coach, Malolan Rangarajan, shed some light on how the pre-WPL 2026 Mega auction build-up is a unique mix of challenge and enjoyment, one that is driven by an understanding of how RCB want to play their brand of cricket.

With a strong core retained adding to experienced voices in the room, Malolan explains how aligning strategy with identity, making the most use of objective inputs from the analyst and addressing inputs from skipper Smriti Mandhana, is a part of RCB’s pre-auction blueprint.

Speaking with Mayanti Langer on the latest episode of RCB Bold Diaries, Malolan said, “See, I think the whole process is always very challenging and very enjoyable because you have people in the room, different opinions, you have, in the case of the WPL, you have Smriti, who is our captain, she has a point of view, Smriti is fully keyed in, giving as much intel as she can, very clear on the way we want to play.”

He continued, “Every year is different, every auction is different, and the cards always dealt, you just have to play what you've been dealt with, so it's pretty enjoyable, I really enjoy it because you have to find a solution, and luckily we have good people in the room, a very, very experienced captain, we've retained a good core, so happy, happy days till now.

Malolan also reflected on his past experience of being at an auction table as a factor that plays into some of the decision making, as he said, “What I've learned in these last 10 years in working with a lot of people is, it's one thing to have a strategy, but being sure of what you don't want is also important.”

He added, “The easiest thing is to sit in a room together with a lot of people who know what they're doing, and come up and set up about seven, eight different combinations. The key is knowing how you want to play, what brand of cricket you want to associate RCB with, and then, like I said earlier, knowing what you don't want.”

He concluded by crediting all those involved in the auction process at RCB and said, “We have our analyst, who gives us an objective point of view. Then you have people like myself, Anya (Shrubsole), and our other coaches in RX (Murali) and Sunetra (Paranjpe), who are very, very experienced. They come in with their expert wisdom. So we try to triangulate this kind of wisdom and input, and obviously Rajesh (Menon, RCB COO), who plays a very important part, because we've always said this and felt that Rajesh is very logical in what he brings.”