Dubai: Life as the coach of an Indian Premier League (IPL) team is never exactly a bed of roses, and Trevor Bayliss is only too aware of it. The Australian, one of the few coaches with two IPL titles under his belt with Kolkata Knight Riders, still does not want to invite extra pressure on himself on the eve of his team’s campaign in Champions League T-20.
“In the past three seasons with KKR, I have asked the guys to just go out and express themselves. It will be the same principle this time also,” Bayliss told Gulf News in an exclusive interview from India. The Gautam Gambhir-led Knight Riders, who capped a record nine-match winning streak with their second IPL crown earlier this year, will open against Chennai Super Kings in a highly billed group league game on Wednesday.
The 51-year-old former Australian and New South Wales player has acquired a growing reputation as a coach over the last few years — which saw Australia naming him as a caretaker coach for their T-20 team recently while he was also on the England & Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) shortlist during their pursuit for a successor to Andy Flower.
When reminded that the Indian teams have, barring a few exceptions, not really excelled against the overseas teams in CL-T20, Bayliss said: “T-20 cricket is a different beast and anything can happen. Speaking of ourselves, we had put together a good team across the board in this year’s auction and if three or four of them come good in each game, we have a decent chance for ourselves.”
This time around, the Knights will be missing out on two of their key campaigners in the IPL in Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hassan and South African fast bowler Morne Morkel.Concerned at the loss of Hassan, whose reduced period of ban still overlaps with the CL-T20, Bayliss said: “Shakib played in two positions — batting in middle order and finishing the game and as a left-arm orthodox spinner. However, we have to sit down and tweak the gameplan a little and we have got a few good replacements in young Kuldip (Singh) and Andre Russell.”
Looking ahead at a possible encore from Robin Uthappa, who scored 660 runs in the IPL to win the Orange Cap, Bayliss said: “He [Uthappa] was in extremely good form, though he will be little disappointed with his off-season tour of Australia with the India A team. Though I didn’t have a chance to speak with him on the tour, I feel he was trying to put too much pressure on himself. Yes, he will certainly be one go-to player along with the captain at the top of the order.”
There has been a fair amount of speculation on Jacques Kallis’ future with the Knights as the iconic allrounder had to sit out quite a few games during the IPL. Asked about his plans for the South African, Bayliss said: “Kallis could easily play as we have got only five international players available this time. At some point, his role also goes a lot wider than only on the field as others can look up to him in the dressing room.”
Asked about the usual talk of the KKR attack being a bit over-reliant on mystery spinner Sunil Narine, Bayliss shot back: “It’s unfair to say that we are over-dependant on him. All teams, for that matter, have a number of key players and it will be under-selling the role of other bowlers in the team if you say that.
“This year, we had focused on strengthening the bowling department and we have five full-time bowlers and some part-time who served us well,” he added.
