IPL 2017: Watson willing to bat higher up to fill holes of RCB

Not having captain Virat Kohli for the initial part of the Indian Premier League, and KL Rahul for the whole tournament is definitely not good news for the RCB.
The 35-year-old feels with two key players missing, RCB will have to change their plans a bit. | (Jithendra M | EPS)
The 35-year-old feels with two key players missing, RCB will have to change their plans a bit. | (Jithendra M | EPS)

BENGALURU : Not having captain Virat Kohli for the initial part of the Indian Premier League, and KL Rahul for the whole tournament is definitely not good news for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, as they begin their campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad in a few days.

Though it is not the ideal situation, all-rounder Shane Watson feels they can still do well as they have batting depth. 

“It is not ideal to have Virat and Rahul out. They are two great players,” he said here on Saturday. “However, the one thing we have is lots of batting depth. We have Sarfaraz (Khan), Mandeep (Singh), Kedar (Jadhav) and Sachin (Baby). We’re fortunate to have such quality in depth. With such depth we should be okay.”

The Australian is prepared to move up the order if required. “I’m ready to bat anywhere, but if I get a role up the order, I’ll certainly enjoy doing that,” he opined. “My role probably will change a little bit, and that’s great. I’ve got more chances of batting up the order, and that’s what I’ve done in the majority of my career.”

The 35-year-old feels with two key players missing, RCB will have to change their plans a bit.

“The plan will change a bit, but to be honest, we can’t get much worse than what we did last year,” he noted. “Last year, we were so far behind halfway through the season.

We learned a lot as a group from what really happened, about the first half and then how it came together and clicked for us as a unit later. I’m confident that we’ll hit the ground running better this year. Our bowlers really turned things around then.

“I think we can continue the momentum we had at the back end of last year. It was an incredible run. There’s no reason why we can’t follow on that because we’ve a similar make-up.”

As always, Watson is prepared to help and assist others. “I’m always there to help anyone I can, and whenever possible.”

vivekphadnis@newindianexpress.coms

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