WPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Luke Williams, spoke about the side’s approach in the lead-up to the second season of the 20-over women’s tournament during the WPL 2024 auction in Mumbai on Saturday.
Williams emphasised the side’s altered approach to the bowling department on the sidelines of the WPL 2024 auction following the side’s disappointing showing in the inaugural edition of the women’s tournament.
“Yeah, obviously it was a tough tournament last season for RCB and you’ll notice that the overseas unit has been released and we are looking at some different options in our bowling attack for this season,” Williams began.
“So that’s been core to our plans, to have a look at our bowling and how we think we can structure that up with a combination of pace and spin,” he said.
Williams also touched up on how he has worked well together with skipper and the WPL’s most expensive player, star Indian batter Smriti Mandhana, in constructing the RCB rebuild.
“I’ve been fortunate to be assistant coach of the Southern Brave the last two seasons, so I’ve worked with Smriti there and obviously through that and since my appointment, we’ve kept in touch and spent a fair bit of time talking through the type of team that we want to be and how we’re going to go about it and the plans for the auction. So she’s been integral in the planning for today,” Williams revealed.
RCB roped in the services of English international Kate Cross for a sum of 60 Lakhs and Indian player Ekta Bisht for 40 Lakhs at the WPL 2024 auction on Saturday and Williams spoke about how crucial the bowler could be for the fortunes of the Karnataka-based WPL side.
“Both are extremely experienced cricketers, which is, I think with the WPL, to have that experience at international level and in Indian conditions for obviously Ekta but also for Kate is so, so important,” he said.
“So we’re keen to get that experience. We think Kate’s able to bowl in different phases and Ekta’s obviously played a lot of international cricket and we think should be a really good acquisition to the RCB squad,” he reiterated.
Williams also opined that it would be a delight for RCB to play in front of a passionate home crowd at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
“I think to play any games at home would be absolutely superb. So obviously we’ll wait and see. But if there were games in Bangalore, that would be so exciting for our fans in Bangalore.”
Williams also opened up on the stye of cricket the RCB women’s side will seek to play in the upcoming edition of the event as the Bengaluru-based franchise go in search of a first title across the men’s and women’s divisions.
“Yeah, obviously there’s been some changes in the playing group, but we’ve still got great faith in the players that we’ve retained within the list. We’re really happy with the squad that we’re assembling.”
“So there’ll be a style of cricket, a brand of cricket, a bold brand of cricket that we want to play and we’ll be focusing in the lead up to the tournament on making sure that every player and every support staff are really clear on how we want to play, that we’ve trained that hard and that we’re ready to bring that to the tournament this season”, Williams concluded.
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