“Right balance between continuity and stability” - Mo Bobat as RCB retain 17 players from title-winning squad

RCB retained 17 members of their IPL 2025 title-winning squad ahead of the IPL 2026 player auction, emphasising continuity going into the new season.

On an episode of RCB Bold Diaries, head coach Andy Flower and Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, offered an insight into their thinking behind making the retentions while also shining some light on the work that will be put in before the auction comes around.

Speaking on the retentions, Flower said, “We have been able to retain a really strong squad with obviously a great recent history of playing winning cricket, playing some outstanding cricket and I feel for the players that we are releasing because I'm pretty sure they loved the experience as much as I did last year.”

He added, “So of course we will look to strengthen our squad but in saying that we are comfortable with retaining a strong base and a strong core of the team and squad so there's less movement than there was obviously in the big auction last year.”

Bobat stressed on how the think-tank is looking at improvement as one of the key factors heading into the auction and said, “We've had a successful season. We're trying to strike the right balance between continuity and stability, but also striving for improvements. We want to make sure that we turn up at the next competition in an even stronger place than we were last season.”

He also said, “So we expect all of our retained players to arrive better, and we will aim to improve on their ability to impact games. But also we want to improve our squad. We want to be able to do that at the auction, and we want to create competition for places. So that was a real priority, trying to balance those two things and make sure that we arrive in a better place next season.”

Flower gave some insight into the think-tank’s eagle-eyed approach to player selection and said, “Mo and Malo have structured a very good scouting system, so we are able to scout around the world, and very importantly, domestically around India. So that's an important part of the off-season, and we have been keeping a very close eye on people's form and fitness, and not just our players. Obviously keeping an eye on other players that we might have an interest in. So it's good to see a lot of our players still in very good form.”

He finished by saying, “There's a lot of cricket between now and the auction itself. You know, there's the SMAT tournament that's almost going to be completed by the time the auction happens. And obviously a lot of cricket before the next IPL, and we'll be watching intently, and growing our understanding of the players that we work really closely with.”