Working through candidates for Rajasthan Royals captaincy, reveals Andrew McDonald
Rajasthan Royals coach Andrew McDonald has stated that they are actively assessing captaincy options and will come up with a candidate sooner than later. He also added that discussion regarding trading is an ongoing process for them and they will finalise the details before the deadline.
McDonald, who had previously played for Delhi Daredevils (2009 and 2011) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (2012 and 2013) and was also the bowling coach of the Bangalore-based side in the past, has a lot of coaching credentials outside of the IPL too. He had helped Victoria win the Sheffield Shield in his first year as coach and powered Melbourne Renegades, who finished seventh in the 2017-18 season, to a Big Bash title this year and that seems to have done the trick for him to replace Upton in the Royals' lineup.
Taking over just a couple of months ahead of the IPL auction, McDonald has a lot of things to be worried about with one of them being a solid captaincy option. Ajinkya Rahane was the captain for the major part of the league last year but he failed to make an impact, along with bowling unit sans Jofra Archer, underfiring in almost all matches. Now, he has to settle that and much more.
"Improvement is the big thing. Any time you can improve, from year to year, with your list in terms of your performance, as we saw only last year small improvements could have meant that Rajasthan could have made the top four. And if you’ve made the top four, then you have a genuine chance of going all the way as was seen in the past. So, every team at the start of the year would be looking to make the top four. Finals would be an indication of improvement, something that’s a real challenge for the group in terms of captaincy," McDonald was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
"We will assess where we are at in terms of leadership, in terms of the group that’s available for that window and so we’ll be having those discussions. Clearly, with the team (faltered) last year so we are working through candidates for captaincy moving forward. These are the thoughts that matter at the moment."
Steve Smith was asked to lead the side when Rahane was stood down as captain of the team. Smith fared much better as a captain as Rajasthan avoided wooden spoon but that was all that. McDonald is serious about having a clear structure for this year's IPL and is ready to build a style of cricket that best suits them.
"We have had some clear discussions on how we want the team potentially to play and the style of cricket we want to play. The next thing is executing the list that matches that. If we are unable to secure the players or the proper players, who we feel can execute our style of cricket, then potentially we will have to look at players we contract for the upcoming season to build a style of cricket that best suits them.
"There are two ways of looking at it -- you have to recruit the players who play your style of cricket or you recruit the best players and figure out the style of cricket that you think would be best for that group at that point of time. So will probably bounce and add a few different plans, few different styles of cricket throughout the tournament as well. With the nature of IPL being a long tournament so there will be some mixing and matching of teams and we’ll be quite dynamic in terms of the way that we think from game to game."
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