Australia’s fast-bowling allrounder Cameron Green could be an ideal fit for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the middle-order powerful batter role, believes director of cricket Mo Bobat.
On Monday, IPL announced that Green was traded to RCB from Mumbai Indians after retaining him on the deadline day (November 26).
“After doing back and forth, we agreed for the cash trade, but only at the eleventh hour and it was an exciting finish. He’s the ideal fit for us in that middle-order power role. He’s a high-quality, skilful and powerful batsman. He’s got the game against both pace and spin. He’s got international experience across formats and I’m sure he will enjoy batting at the Chinnaswamy.”
“So, seeing him do that will be really exciting. He’s also a fantastic bowler and he bowls with pace and bounce, which were certainly attributes we were looking for particularly in our home conditions. Let’s not forget what an exceptional fielder he is. Some of the catches he has taken in recent times fielding at gully is seriously impressive,” Bobat told RCB.
He went on to explain the turn of events behind how they got Green, a member of Australia’s 2023 ODI World Cup winning squad, from MI. “It was pretty exciting and if I go back to mid-morning yesterday (Sunday), we were pretty clear on our retentions and release decisions and we had communicated it to all of our players. We were pretty clear on what that meant for our auction priorities. So, felt like we were going to have a fairly quiet afternoon.
“If you look at the retentions and the decisions we made, we’ve obviously got a really strong top order and we wanted to enhance the middle order by adding a little bit of power. Preferably that power was a batting pace all-rounder, which would give depth & balance the squad as well as team in a very different way. We had made the difficult decision to let go of Wanindu Hasaranga and if there was a perfect fit, it was Cameron Green, which we discussed as an option if available ahead of the auction.”
“With a couple of hours of the retention and release deadline, we were made aware of Cameron’s potential availability for trade, which we had to take seriously. So, having spoken to the guys at MI, we got a small group of us together at our end we thought we better discuss this and debate the pros and cons of trying to make this trade work, which is what we did for a little bit of time.”
“Essentially, we were trying to weigh up whether we take the risk of someone else picking up Cameron Green now, which could have happened before the deadline…by hoping he makes it to the auction as a released player, but somebody else could’ve picked him up, which was obviously the case. Even then if you get to the auction, there’s no guarantee that you get him at the auction because you can easily be outbid, as Cameron is a high-quality player and will attract huge interest.”
Green played 16 IPL matches for MI in IPL 2023, scoring 452 runs at a strike rate of 160.28 while hammering an unbeaten century and two fifties, averaging 50.22 with the bat and taking six wickets at an economy rate of 9.50.
By trading in Green, RCB now have INR 23.35 crores to fill up six slots at the IPL auction set to happen on December 19 in Dubai. Head coach Andy Flower, who was Australia’s consultant for their World Cup win, World Test Championship triumph and the Ashes this year, was excited over the prospect of having Green at RCB.
“Our focus area really was around the middle order and where we can improve that middle order, in case we do lose some of our top players at the top (order), which inevitably happens. So, that’s one area and the other area was getting the balance right on the overseas players and how we allocate our resources in that area.”
“Of course, even in these days of Impact Players, allrounders are still important. So, we debated how we can include allrounders in our XI and when we do so what options and the flexibility that gives us. We spent a lot of debate time and looking at rosters of players and their various skills, it’s been a fascinating mini-project.”
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