IPL 2019: Gary Kirsten, Ashish Nehra kickstart RCB preparations

The Royal Challengers Bangalore kickstarted their preparations for another season of the IPL with a five-day conditioning camp in Bengaluru, under the guidance of coaches Gary Kirsten and Ashish Nehra.

Speaking about the camp, held at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and in Alur, Kirsten said that the camp served its purpose of assessing domestic talent in the RCB setup.

"The camp gave us an opportunity to start formulating our thoughts around how we want to play and what our strongest team will look like for IPL 12. We had most our Indian players join and it was a great opportunity for me to see players I have not watched that often".

"It was also a good opportunity for the coaching staff to get together and formulate a way to work to get the best out of each player," he added.

Parthiv Patel and Ashish Nehra during an RCB practice session (File photo - credit: RCB Instagram)

With trainers A.I. Harsha, Evan Speechly and Shravan Kumbagowdana assisting the coaches, 11 players participated in the camp, working on conditioning and strengthening drills, including the yo-yo test, a benchmark for fitness in the country.

Ashish Nehra, who is assisting Kirsten in the RCB setup, said “We had a lovely camp in Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy and Alur stadium, great wickets, great facility, the team had an amazing time during practice and net sessions. We worked on interesting prospects for the upcoming season. Really looking forward to the start of season 12.”

The players that were part of the camp were: Akshdeep Nath, Devdutt Padikkal, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Himmat Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Milind Kumar, Prayas Ray Barman, Shivam Dube, Pawan Negi, Parthiv Patel and Washington Sundar

The diversity in the range of players was evident in the camp, that included a 16-year-old rookie in the form of Prayas Ray Barman, and also a 33-year-old Parthiv Patel, whose international career started 17 years ago.

Three-time runners up in the IPL, the Bangalore-based franchise is yet to win their maiden title.

Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on IPL 2019 live scores, schedule, news, points table and fantasy tips.