IPL 2018: Daniel Vettori wants more players to take up leadership roles

What’s the story?

Ahead of IPL 2018, Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Daniel Vettori has spoken out outlining the different areas of concern and strengths of his team.

The former Kiwi skipper admitted that his team has been too dependent on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers and that they should look to share the workload in the upcoming season.

"We were really desperate to have those leaders within the group because we probably had just AB and Virat last year", Vettori said.

The details

Vettori also identified the reason for bringing in several players to the group as he wanted Kohli's pressure to be taken away by a new leadership coterie.

He was especially excited with the inclusion of his former teammate Brendon McCullum as according to him, the explosive batsman fits in perfectly with the ethos of the squad.

Also, Vettori said that McCullum with his leadership skills can be a confidant to Kohli and he also brings in a style of play which fits in perfectly with how the team wants to play.

Apart from McCullum, the inclusion of players like Parthiv Patel and Quinton de Kock, gives RCB plenty of leaders.

In case you didn’t know…

Royal Challengers Bangalore had a miserable season last year as they failed to get going in the entire competition and had to be content with the wooden spoon with only three wins in 14 games.

They changed the nucleus of this side this season, as they retained only Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Sarfaraz Khan and used their RTM card on Yuzvendra Chahal and Pawan Negi.

What’s next?

With the presence of several International players with pedigree in the mix, it will be interesting to see how RCB go about things this season.

They will play their first match against the Kolkata Knight Riders on April 8 at the Eden Gardens.

Author’s take

While it is pretty natural for team management to speak highly of their resources, Vettori's honest assessment in many ways throws light on the combination of RCB and how they will approach this particular season.

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