Indian cricket needs to groom Kohli: Jennings

Ray Jennings and Stuart Binny reflected the happy space that their respective teams occupy currently in the IPL. Jennings, the Royal Challengers Bangalore coach, and Binny, the Rajasthan Royals all-rounder, spoke to the media on the eve of Saturday’s big-clash.

Back in his home town, Binny said he had no qualms in taking on RCB.

“Karnataka is my home. RCB is just a franchise,” he said.

Excerpts

Captaincy chronicles

Jennings: Virat (Kohli) understands that he does have a hot head and he also understands that he needs to look at that. Virat’s not a stupid cricketer. He is a smart guy and he has a vision to captain India.

I think Indian cricket, if they are smart, they need to get a group of people around him, and mentor him, and in 3-4 years’ time, you have got an unbelievable cricketer with a good cricket brain, and he leads from the front.

What more can you have?

Binny: He (Rahul Dravid) has a big influence. He is a lot more flexible. In the last game, he didn't go into bat, showing our batting doesn’t revolve around him.

Having a guy like Rahul bhai helps, especially since T20 is all about pressure.

Team fortunes

Jennings: The news is everything revolves around (Chris) Gayle, Kohli and (AB) de Villiers. Last IPL, everything revolved around Gayle.

I don’t mind if it is three players. We might surprise you tomorrow where somebody else comes to the party. We actually have a good enough group of players to handle pressure.

A guy like (Saurabh) Tiwary comes back into the equation. He will definitely be an option for selection.

Binny: We are a very relaxed team. We don’t have guys who can demolish teams in T20 cricket, but we are a unit that is very balanced.

I wouldn't say we are underdogs.