CHENNAI: Gujarat Giants, after finishing last in the back-to-back Women's Premier League points table, went into the mini-auction looking to make a few important changes.
In an exclusive interaction with TNIE, the Australian coach Michael Klinger explained the auction strategies, hopes for his players and future plans. Excerpt...
On acquiring West Indies' Deandra Dottin
She was definitely our target in that first set for a few reasons. She's a match winner. She brings power to our batting lineup and she can bowl four quality overs for us, especially through the middle and death and she's such a versatile player and a match winner and she's been part of championship teams recently and, and that's what we were after.
I watched her closely recently in the WBBL. She is someone who we're excited to have with us.
On retaining Sayali Satghare in the squad
With Sayali, I suppose it's unusual for a team to bring in a replacement last year. She didn't get a game for us, but we retained her. Her performance in domestic cricket has been fantastic. She bowls during difficult period, she bowls in the power play, she bowls at the death. She bats in the top six in domestic cricket. So we know she can give us some useful runs if required.
We know she can add a value in the batting area as well. So we had a camp recently with our local players and she was outstanding there as well. With the ball and her execution when we tried to put a bit of extra pressure on and set scenarios was fantastic. We are really looking forward to having her in the squad and no doubt she'll win some matches for us this year.
On breaking bank for Simran Shaikh
Leading into the auction, we probably didn't think she would go that high but she was a player of interest for us in particular because of her power and the strike rate that she batted at in the recent Challenger Trophy. Her strike rate was over 200. That's very rare in women's cricket.
We feel that we have a local batting group who can play a very similar way to probably a lot of the other batters that were available. So we were looking at someone different and someone who could bring power to our squad and she was that player.
She's had a taste of WPL in season one with UP. We're really excited to have her here and feel that she can win some matches for us with a style about it.
On not picking former Giants captain Sneh Rana
When we were strategising around the players we were looking to retain, there was a clear strategy to pick players who we thought would have the chance of starting in our 11. With us having Ashleigh Gardner as our main offspinner and then two good left unorthodox in Mannat Kashyap, Tanuja Kanwar and of course with Priya Mishra, there was just not going to be an opportunity for her to start in our 11. And Sneh just didn't quite fit that, but it was a really tough decision because she is a high quality player, I think when we made that decision, it was just after she got 10 wickets in a Test match.
She's not in the Indian white-ball squads either. She's a very good white ball player, I was pretty confident she would get picked up elsewhere and get an opportunity maybe to play elsewhere. It hasn't turned out that way for her. It was great to have her around the group.
On England's Danielle Gibson
I think she's a high quality player. We were very lucky to get her at base price. Probably what helped us with that is she has been injured the last few weeks but she's back playing now.
That probably helped not having other people bidding for her, but she adds a huge amount of versatility for us. She's a fantastic bowler combined in all phases and can bowl very well at the depth one of the best fielders in the women's game and a power hitter.
On Prakashika Naik getting a nod
Prakashika Naik is another leg spinner who's probably been the best performing leg spinner in domestic game, especially the Challenger Trophy. We have Priya Mishra who's going great with India at the moment, but maybe on occasion when we decide to play two leg spinners if conditions suit.
They're gold dust in men's or women's cricket if you get the right conditions and have two high-quality leg spinners in the team.
On his personal goals for the upcoming season
For me personally, as head coach, this was the first season I was part of the auction. I wasn't part of the auction in first two and I came in quite late last year. So firstly, to be able to be part of shaping the squad is really exciting. In a small auction, you can only make small changes.
Next season is going to be an opportunity to reshape the squad again. For this season, those small changes that we've made I think are going to make a big difference for us. In terms of goals, we are here to win it we feel that we've got a squad now that can compete really well.
The first goal is to make the playoffs, obviously. What I'm really excited about and proud of in our squad is since the last WPL, we've got seven players who have now represented either India A or India just in the last 12 months and five of them for the first time. So having that competitive cricket under their belt is only going to make them better off when they're playing under pressure and under lights in front of big audiences.
On top of that, you add Kashvee Gautam, who was injured last year, one of the up and coming all-rounder for India. If she can have a solid WPL season, she'll be playing for India very soon as well. Looking forward to the season.