Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey
Rajasthan could have an advantage: Andrew McDonald | RR coach Andrew McDonald says a lot of his squad is battle-hardened and ready for IPL 2020
Indian Premier League is just about to hit the grounds in UAE, and the fans are very much ready for the world’s premier T20 league. Andrew McDonald, who is now the head coach of Rajasthan Royals, talked about how well BCCI and the cricket community has come together to make this season happen amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Though the team’s roster is not fully ready yet as some of the Australian and England players will quarantine due to the recent series, the coach is hoping for a good season. Talking about Ben Stokes, who was the star of England’s triumph in the 2019 World Cup, the coach said that his availability is uncertain after his father was diagnosed with brain cancer in the month of August.
“First and foremost, thoughts with the Stokes family. It’s a difficult scenario, so we’re giving him as much time as he needs, and connecting with him as best we can. So yeah, we’re not sure where Stokesy’s at right now, but once it has played out, then we can make our decisions from there. But I don’t want to second-guess what will happen with him just yet”, he said while talking to ESPNCricinfo.
Even without Stokes, Rajasthan Royals is about to have an ‘England’ influenced team with Tom Curran, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer. McDonald said that the fact that they have played lots of cricket lately could be quite the advantage.
“Definitely, match-hardened players will have an advantage. We’ve had to be creative to overcome the restrictions on practice games, but with a significant percentage of our group had already played, it positions us quite well. Then again, they’ve had the challenges of the bubble in England already, so when they come into another bubble, that might well be something that we need to manage along the way. This tournament is going to be all about managing the individual,” said McDonald.
“The collective team goal is at stake, obviously, but we will have to assess all 25 players and tailor their individual programs for individual needs, and individual time away. And that includes the coaching staff too. Sometimes we forget that coaches are going through exactly the same thing, so we’ll need to have an understanding of where everyone’s at throughout the tournament. If we can manage that well, it might give us a slight advantage. Who knows?”, he said.
Rajasthan will play their first game of IPL 2020 against CSK on September 22.
Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.
