Malolan Rangarajan Fact file: Everything you need to know about RCB Women’s Team’s Assistant Coach

We have always been a fan of the athletes who take the game to the next level, elevating themselves beyond the mere mortal shell and imposing a celestial brand of the sport that would leave fans and experts in awe. However, have we ever thought about how they made the cut in the first place? Any sport that is played by a team has a category of individuals who mint these future athletes and introduce them to the rest of the world. They are known as the scouts.

Talking about notable scouts across the globe, who has not heard about the illustrious names of Hugh Alexander, Joe Devine, Amanda Hopkins, Ray Shore and the list goes on and on. Cut to Indian cricket, the way IPL has impacted the players’ lives has been awe-inspiring and downright motivating. Every franchise in the frame has a scout of their own and talking about IPL scouts, the name that has now become a household one in the Indian cricketing circuit is none other than Malolan Rangarajan.

Not only is Malolan the head of scouting for RCB but he is also the fielding coach for the Men in Red and Gold. However, now he has an even greater responsibility that was imposed upon his shoulders, as he would be the Assistant Coach, serving as the deputy to Ben Sawyer and obviously the method that he has so finely handled for the Royal Challengers, he would continue to mint stars for the women too, being the head of scouting at RCB women.

Appointed in September 2019 by RCB, he took up the scouting responsibilities at the side and continued to proliferate with the franchise in significant fashion. He has been a part of the team for the last three years and all three of them has seen RCB excelling handsomely in the fielding department with bursts of excellence from their youngsters that eventually led them to the play-offs.

With the women’s team coming onboard, Malolan will be the perfect fit as the scouting head considering his eye for prized talents while his shrewd perspective will also be gold to Ben Sawyer, helping him adapt to the ethos of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Also, here is a fact about Malolan that will make you believe that he is earmarked for greater heights as he had his own playing rodeo and was one of the most gifted spinners for Tamil Nadu. Known for his all-round display, he was pulling off a decent job in the domestic circuit but couldn’t really crack open a door for himself for the bigger picture as his timeline was squashed between the rise of Ravichandran Ashwin and Washington Sundar. However, unwilling to relinquish, Malolan shifted his allegiance to Uttarakhand in 2019 before being appointed as the scouting maven for RCB.

Under his illustrious reign at RCB, two names that have gone onto bag an international call-up feature the likes of Rajat Patidar and Shahbaz Ahmed, two stars who were instrumental in the preceding edition of the tournament in propelling RCB to the playoffs. Shahbaz has also made his international debut for Team India.

Malolan has also been at the forefront of the hinterland scouting initiative, a method that zooms into the Indian cricketing landscape at a much deeper level and prises out talents that would have otherwise remained unnoticed. Two names that were selected by RCB through this Hinterland scouting include Avinash Singh and Himanshu Sharma who will be donning the RCB colours in the upcoming IPL season.