Kolkata: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), led by Indian skipper Virat Kohli, beefed up their support staff when they appointed former Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar as their batting consultant for the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL). A mini-auction for the IPL is scheduled on February 18 in Chennai while the mega event is likely to be held in selected venues of India in April-May this year.
“Delighted to add a coach of Sanjay Bangar’s experience to our existing coaching team led by head coach Simon Katich,” RCB’s Director of Cricket Operations Mike Hesson said in a statement on Bangar’s appointment.
Bangar will join the coaching staff which already has Sridharan Sriram as batting and spin bowling coach and Katich as head coach. The soft-spoken Indian allrounder, who was the Indian team’s batting coach for five years between 2014 and 2019, will be enjoying Kohli’s confidence. He has previously worked as the head coach of Kings XI Punjab in the IPL.
Talking about Bangar’s role in the team, Hesson said that the 48-year-old will join the squad in its pre-season camps.
“Sanjay Bangar’s role as batting consultant will include working with our existing squad in camps in Bengaluru leading up to our full squad pre-IPL camp,” said Hesson.
“We are very fortunate at RCB to now have Sanjay join Sriram and Simon as batting coaches who can offer superb knowledge and experience to our playing squad throughout the IPL,” added Hesson, who is already in India to strategis for the IPL auctions.
RCB had finished at the fourth spot in the points table in the 2020 IPL edition in the UAE where they were defeated by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator. The Bengaluru-based franchise, who alongwith Delhi Capitals are the only two franchises not to have ever won the title, has released 10 players ahead of the auction, including five overseas players. They have retained the following 12 players: Kohli, AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Josh Philippe, Mohammad Siraj, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pawan Deshpande, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson.
