Things have really panned out well for us: Mike Hesson happy with RCB’s Class of '23

After a busy mini-auction at Kochi, Mike Hesson opened up on RCB’s latest recruits and the hallowed Class of ‘23. RCB’s director of cricket operations was pretty happy with their exploits in the war-room at Kochi and talked in detail on RCB’s Bold Diaries video.

Hesson said, “Things have really panned out well for us. Starting with Reece Topley, we were well in budget and that allowed us a sort of flexibility and the room to splurge on Will Jacks. We weren’t sure whether we will be able to afford, so he is a great addition. They are both straight swaps for us.”

He further added, “For Reece Topley, left arm angle and tall while from Will Jacks’ point of view he is a direct swap for Maxwell as he also bowls off-spin. From an Indian perspective, we are pretty sorted with what we wanted to get. It was more of a balancing act.”

Hesson then spoke about the Indian stars in the auction adding, “Avinash was chosen through the Hinterland scouting process of Malolan. We have identified him, bowled him through a couple of camps. He has good pace. We know that he has got a lot of work to do but as competing with KKR, we have obviously seen some talent there as well.”

He then shifted his focus to Sonu Yadav and Manoj Bhandage, adding, “Sonu provides the all-round capability as he is a bowler who bats. Manoj is the opposite, he is a batter who can bowl. He is a great left-arm power player. He has also been in good touch. We needed some left-arm angle from an Indian perspective, which now we will be able to afford early on, as we managed to add a left-arm quick as well.”

Hesson also talked about the Class of ‘23 as a whole, stating, “The team is a very flexible one now. The ability to vary our bowling attack, depending on conditions, the ability to utilise the impact player as best as we can, the ability to change it up, depending on the match-ups, based on our oppositions. We think we have got a side that suits Chinnaswamy as well. All in all, the auction day has been pretty phenomenal for us. We were able to achieve exactly what we wanted.”