New Delhi, May 6 (IANS): Shane Bond, the assistant coach and fast-bowling coach of Rajasthan Royals, said whoever in their squad will come in to replace Jos Buttler after the league stage of IPL 2024 ends will do a great job for the side if they enter the playoffs.
Rob Key, England men’s managing director, had revealed that Buttler, who will captain the side in the upcoming T20 World Cup, will be leaving IPL 2024 after the league stage concludes, along with other showpiece-event bound players to play in a T20I series against Pakistan at home, which is in direct clash with the tournament playoffs.
It means that RR will have to place a new opening partner for Yashasvi Jaiswal in Buttler’s absence. “That happens all the time with international teams like Mustafizur has now missed out for Chennai (due to the Bangladesh-Zimbabwe T20I series). We are aware of the implications of losing out on players and we are not going to be the only team affected by it.”
“That’s why you have a squad and bring someone else to fill in that role. So we've always had those contingencies in place it's part and parcel of having an IPL before a World Cup and you deal with that when it happens.”
“He's one of the world's best players so it's obviously a loss. I was part of Mumbai Indians in 2017, where we had the same thing he left playing for and we still won the tournament. So that's why you build a squad for.”
“Also, KKR are going to lose Phil Salt; other teams are losing players as everyone's impacted either by people being removed for World Cup or by injuries. We certainly feel like we've got a really strong squad and whoever comes in to replace Jos is going to do a great job for us,” said Bond in the pre-match press conference.
At the same time, Bond was also delighted with the selection of captain and wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson into India’s 15-member squad for the mega event. “Coming into this season for the first time, always had great respect for Sanju from afar. The opportunity to come in and work alongside him has been fantastic. He's known in the team as being a fun guy and relaxed guy.”
“When you take over the captain's role, there's a lot that comes with it - the media commitments, sponsorship, all that stuff. I think what he's learning and has learned from the last couple of years is managing all that, managing his time, and energy, and leaning on senior players in the group. We've got some great senior players in our team.”
“By balancing all that, it's got the best out of him because the IPL is an energy-sapping competition, particularly when you get to the back end. It's been exciting for us as a team to see him get (T20) World Cup selection. We're all delighted for him. He's playing beautifully and hopefully, he can just keep leading us through the back end of this tournament like he has been.”
RR have enjoyed a great run in the tournament so far, winning eight matches to be in second position with 16 points. Their last game ended in a one-run defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Bond thinks his team is fully prepared to solidify their chances of entering the playoffs, taking into account the short boundaries at the Arun Jaitley Stadium ahead of their clash against Delhi Capitals on Tuesday.
“We've only lost two games in the tournament and both have been on the last ball. We understand that we're really tough team to beat. I think coming out of the last game we talked a lot about our power-play with the ball as we were up against a pretty high-octane batting lineup with Travis and Abhishek and we keep them to 35.”
“We understand the challenge out here tomorrow against Delhi on a small ground again so that's the one thing we really want to carry forward into this game. If we continue to play the way we are then we're going to win games. We know how we want to play and credit to the boys - they've played beautifully through the tournament so far.”
“So it's never nice to lose, but it's certainly nice to have eight wins under the belt with four games to go. We're pretty happy with where we sit. We plan for every team and player, plus against the challenges in the game to go out and execute the plans right.”
“We've sat down today and have gone through each of the Delhi batsmen - how we want to attack them, the way we want to contain them, where we think we can have success and then we'll go out tomorrow and try to put that in place.”
“When we've done that, we've been really good. Our bowling unit's done a terrific job so far. For me, it's always nice to see if the boys can go out and put that in place so that's where the fun part is – when we can deliver on the stuff we want to do,” he concluded.