A combination of Bumrah and Archer would be scary
NEWDELHI: Rajasthan Royals upstaged bigger rivals to win the inaugural Indian Premier League title in 2008. Ahead of the player auction on Thursday, RR COO, Jake Lush McCrum, elaborates the strategy the franchise adopts to evaluate talent and ensure the Jaipur-based team gets the players it targets. McCrum would also love nothing more than acquiring Jasprit Bumrah and letting him lose in tandem with England fast bowler Jofra Archer. Excerpts:
How does the franchise plan for an auction?
Preparation begins immediately after the IPL season. Player performances are continuously monitored. Our Head of Cricket receives videos in his dropbox of players performing well around the world. If he thinks they have the technical ability to perform in IPL, they are then tracked in more detail. We review all other teams and make estimations of their release/retention strategy. Our data science teams work on several areas including independent player valuations to uncover undervalued players for specific roles. We then move on to physical trials for players (Indian and international), which we hold at our facility in Nagpur. The trials take place in a 75m radius pitch on private property to enable us to trial players in a confidential manner. Previously we had to use public grounds, which led to scouts from other teams turning up. Around 30 players are trialled using match scenarios to test them under high pressure, with players often only getting 12 balls to perform, as would be the case in IPL. Post the trials, we run simulations with our analytics team in Chennai which is where I am this week. These go on for five days to help us generate estimated values players will be acquired for in the auction, in addition to our final decision tree. This decision tree is the key piece of information for our auction execution. Helping us judge how much we can pay for certain players, players that other teams want that we can push up and opportunities to take advantage of undervalued players.
What spots are you looking to fill?
We have a quality set of players already, but we will be looking to secure both known and unknown talent. Every player we look to buy in the auction, we must believe can be a match-winner for us. It is the third year of the auction cycle, so it’s extremely important we sign players who are ready to step up to the biggest cricketing stage.
Have you earmarked players for this auction whom you will go all out to buy?
Absolutely. I’ll let you know after the auction how many we get. Last year we managed to successfully execute our plan for every role and I hope we can replicate that.
How did you zero in on Andrew McDonald as head coach?
Andrew is a young, driven coach who has developed across various coaching roles and proven himself with improvement in the performance of all his teams. He took (Melbourne) Renegades from seventh to winning BBL, which is a fantastic achievement and we believe his match preparation and day-to-day management of a team is extremely impressive. He has a great reputation among players and coaches in the industry and also has a strong relationship with our captain, Steve Smith, which is extremely important. We have entered into a long-term agreement as we believe
Andrew will take us to consistent success. We want to move from being the underdog to being a team which consistently reaches the playoffs and competes for the IPL trophy.
What was the rationale behind trading Ajinkya Rahane?
Rahane is a Royals legend and will always be a member of our family. He is an exceptionally talented cricketer whose century was one of the best performances of IPL 2019 and we wish him all the best at Delhi (Capitals).
The reason for the trade was our excess number of quality openers compared to a lack of depth in the leg spin department, which we have all seen is incredibly important. Both Makarand Markande and Rahul Tewatia have performed in IPL and we believe they can add significant value to the team. Tewatia also has the ability to bat big late in an innings, which is very valuable.
When a big buy like Unadkat doesn’t deliver, how do you compensate for it?
Jaydev didn’t have the season we know he has the ability to have, but what I would highlight is his bouncebackability. He had a challenging start to IPL 2019; however, after having a few games off, he came back and performed exceptionally well. He was Man-ofthe-Match in our win against SRH. There is so much cricketing talent available that you always have squad depth in IPL. We had the ability to rotate our fast bowlers to take the pressure off them on occasion and enable them to come back firing in the next match. We always look to have three options for a role so we have the flexibility required during the intense tournament which is IPL.
What has been your biggest strength and weakness?
Our biggest strength has been our continued innovation, whether in the auction, through player technology, in on-field strategies or through our investment in grassroots cricket. That has led to us having the highest points-per-dollar spend total in IPL. We’ve also launched numerous Indian players onto the international stage like (Ravindra) Jadeja and Rahane, while relaunching international players like (Shane) Watson and (James) Faulkner. Talking about weakness, we didn’t take as many wickets through the middle overs last year which put pressure on our death bowlers. This is why we have looked to deepen our legspin options.
One player you would want to see in a Royals jersey at some point?
I’d have to say Bumrah. He is such an incredible talent and a combination of him and Jofra (Archer) would just be scary. Also, whenever I speak to players, they say what a great guy he is on and off the field.