Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Daniel Vettori today said his team was pretty well equipped to handle Kings XI Punjab's Chris Gayle's explosive batting because they were aware of his strengths.
"We probably won't anticipate playing against Chris tomorrow. But if he does, if any team knows how good he is that is RCB and what he has done for the team for a number of years. We are fully aware of his strengths and how we can handle him," Vettori said of Gayle who played for RCB earlier.
Gayle did not play KXIP's last match against Delhi Daredevils.
Hopefully, the team can also tackle K L Rahul who is in fantastic form and knows the conditions here pretty well, Vettori said.
"KL is obviously in fantastic form in the first game and he knows these conditions. He missed all last year for us, it was sad not to see him perform (play at all) but he has gone away to KXIP and started exceptionally well. Hopefully we can tackle him well," he said.
On sixth bowling option, Vettori said the team look at it more as an opportunity for five bowlers to do their job, rather than wait for someone to fail and another come into the scene.
"I didn't say we didn't bowl well, I said we didn't bowl well to Narine. Everything else fitted, I was happy with our performance there. There are five bowlers there who are all proven apart from Kulwant who is new into the team and we backed him because of his performances leading into it and obviously his previous T20 performance," he added.
On the spin duo Yuzuvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar, both did not bowl well to Narine which was the only disappointment.
"Once again, it was the way we bowled to Narine we were disappointed with. Washington didn't bowl as well to him and Chahal as well."
Vettori said last season his team was not used to the wicket here and hence adaptability was the criteria for purchasing players at the auction.
"We need guys who could perform in any conditions, not a 200 or 220-run Chinnaswamy wicket. We have got a group of guys who are really adaptable. Obviously after the game we will be able to judge and analyse it and see where we stand with the wicket," he said.
On Virat Kohli batting number three, Vettori said the team needs to be flexible and dynamic throughout the season. But they want Brendon McCullum and Quinton De Kock at the top and AB de Villiers in the middle, as they are perfectly cut out for the task.
"The reason we wanted Brendon and Quinton at the top is because they are so dynamic in the Power Play and then AB can take over in the middle stages. At this stage, that is the plan but it can all change," he said.
Vettori said the loss of Kohli and AB de Villiers in two balls and bowling poorly at Narine cost the team the match against Kolkata Knight Riders.
"Losing AB and Virat in two balls, we didn't launch after that. And I don't think we bowled particularly well to Narine. We went away from our plans a little bit," he said.
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