Having worked with New Zealand, Pakistan, and Delhi Daredevils, Trent Woodhill joined Royal Challengers Bangalore as batting and fielding coach ahead of this IPL season.
A long-time personal coach to David Warner, Woodhill admitted it would be odd to come up against his student, when RCB plays Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday. The 43-year-old Australian spoke to the press here on Friday.
Excerpts:
Three losses on the trot: We haven’t scored enough runs. We didn’t close out the KKR game and we probably took that mindset into the Rajasthan game. We just didn’t start well against Kings XI. We’ve got a really good batting line-up and over the course of 14 matches, it will fire. If you think ‘we didn’t fire today and we need to do something’, that’s when things can go horribly wrong.
Facing a team with Warner: It’s always weird when I’m in a team against him. I’ve spent so many years trying to make sure he hasn’t got any weaknesses. All of a sudden, to ask what his weaknesses are, it’s a strange feeling.
Chris Gayle’s fitness: I wouldn’t say he’s back to full fitness but he’s back hitting balls, which is great for the team.
Yuvraj Singh’s form: Yuvraj has contributed in the games against Mumbai and Delhi. In the last game, that was the turning point. He was 38 off 30 balls. I thought he was going to accelerate but we lost wickets around him. You need partnerships for players to bat with freedom.
Fielding: A.B. de Villiers sits above everybody at the moment, but I wouldn’t trade Virat Kohli for anyone. At some stage he’ll be the world’s best. Steve Rixon has done an amazing job at Chennai, where Raina and Jadeja run the show. If we can match Chennai in the field, it will be great.