Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are yet to win an Indian Premier League (IPL) title and probably in the hopes of the same, they are making changes to their backroom staff. Director of Cricket Mike Hesson and batting coach Sanjay Bangar’s time with the franchise is reportedly coming to an end. The Indian Express reports that RCB has officially parted ways with the duo.
Moreover, the franchise is in search of new coaches, and bowling coach Adam Griffith’s position is also under the scanner. In office for five years, Sanjay Bangar and Mike Hesson share a great camaraderie with former skipper Virat Kohli. There is also no clarity over RCB’s fielding coach, Malolan Rangarajan, and spin bowling coach, Sridharan Sriram.
RCB is not the only franchise making changes to their coaching setup in the off-season
Notably, under Hesson, RCB reached the playoffs of each season of the IPL, except the 2023 edition where they were held by Gujarat Titans in the final league game restricting their playoff qualification. Gujarat Titans (GT) went on to reach the final in the previous edition but failed to MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK). They lost to CSK in the first qualifier and went on to beat Mumbai in the second qualifier.
Interestingly, RCB is not the only franchise trying out changes to their coaching set-up. Earlier, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) released their head coach Andy Flower. He was replaced by Justin Langer within hours of the official announcement. Similar to RCB, LSG also have not won the IPL title yet. But, they have been active in just two editions, reaching the playoffs in both. While Andy Flower is currently not employed, reports suggest that he is already in talks with other franchises.
Talking of LSG, they lost their skipper KL Rahul mid-way through the competition when he suffered an injury in the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). They were captained by Krunal Pandya for the remainder of the competition. They crashed out in the Eliminator against Mumbai Indians, bringing curtains on their IPL 2023 campaign.
Here’s how fans reacted:
We qualified consecutive 3 times Under Hesson…. L Move by RCB
— Atharv Mishra?? (@Ansh9066) July 16, 2023
High chances of Shane watson joining a Franchise as a head coach, Yeah you are listening it here first
— ? (@Hustler4CSK) July 16, 2023
Trophy incoming
— Mohit khokar (@khokar_mohit) July 16, 2023
Chad Yuzi.
His interview came out and RCB sacked the management pic.twitter.com/A7VxpQmpmZ— shank (@shanktweetss) July 16, 2023
No one cares about tinpot harcb ??
— Lucifer ?? (@vk_king_) July 16, 2023
— Freak (@soul_freak80) July 16, 2023
Fir bhi trophy nhi aayi to ?
— Desi Bhayo (@desi_bhayo88) July 16, 2023
It's a very good news for rcb because both of them always gone for big players and never thought about future they were one of reasons of failure of rcb hope they will build a good team for long future
— Kunal Chaudhari (@kunalJC183) July 16, 2023
