Shane Watson says Royal Challengers Bangalore has finally found the right balance, after struggling in the initial stages of the IPL. Even as it continues to rely on the trio of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and A.B. de Villiers at the top of the order, in two of the last three matches — against Gujarat Lions and Kings XI Punjab — it has shown improvement in its bowling.
“It will take teams some time to find out the right mix for the new players,” said Watson at an event organised by P&G Shiksha, a project aimed at providing free and quality education for children.
“It’s just about finding the right balance. Once we did, things have just continued to go up from there. Everything has gelled and everything has clicked. We are flying!”
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Watson, who played his guitar for an audience of children from government schools here on Thursday, agreed that the bowlers’ mindset had changed. “When you have a few more runs to defend, it makes it a bit easier. When the opposition is chasing 12 runs an over from ball one, you have a little bit more room for error,” he said.
Watson added that it was a privilege to be in the same team as Virat Kohli. “To just be able to think that someone can score four hundreds in an IPL season is amazing. To be able to score one in your entire career is an incredible feat. Virat and AB [de Villiers] are playing a different game at the moment. What they are doing is just mind-blowing.”
How would he bowl to Kohli, Watson was asked. “Every time I have played against Virat there have always been specific plans,” he said.
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“More on how to contain him. He very rarely makes a mistake to get out. For me it’s more about trying to mix it up so that he doesn’t really have much of an idea about where I am going to bowl. But by the end of the third over or so he is reading me like a book and hits it wherever he wants,” he added.