Flower: 'Tremendous respect' for how Patidar remained calm despite all the scrutiny

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower was all praise for captain Rajat Patidar after he led the team to their maiden IPL title with a six-run win over Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Ahmedabad. Patidar has played only four international games for India, but Flower feels he didn't let that lack of experience become a hurdle in carrying out the "tricky job".

"One of the most impressive things about what Rajat has done this year is, as an inexperienced captain, that he hasn't been affected by it," Flower said. "I don't think it has affected his batting because I've watched him really closely as a character, and he is still the lovely, gentle, polite Rajat Patidar that we knew last year. He hasn't changed at all in that regard.

"Captaining RCB is a really tricky job. If I cast my mind back to how poorly I captained when I was his age, I've got tremendous respect for how he's held himself with all that scrutiny, and captained some big players. You can't underestimate the calmness he showed in leading some really big players, a really big franchise, making good decisions out there in the middle under the pressure that RCB players play under. So I've got tons of respect for him. I'm really proud of the way that he's carried himself, and he's been crucial to us doing well."

Chasing 191 for victory, PBKS made a brisk start with Priyansh Arya looking to shift into a higher gear. But an excellent catch by Phil Salt near the backward-square-leg boundary sent him back in the fifth over. Flower said that was one of the turning points of the match.

"That was an outstanding catch, wasn't it?" he said. "I thought it was a perfect example of someone holding his nerve under pressure. It took a while to get to him, he knew that he was moving towards the boundary, and to stay that calm under that sort of pressure in a final to get our first wicket was an amazing piece of fielding from him, and also just holding his nerve.

"He only got back from England at 3 o'clock this morning, and he's been an outstanding batter and fielder for us throughout the season. He has taken a couple of catches like that through the season, he works really hard at it. I think he had actually preferred to keep wicket, but he was outstanding, and a turning point, obviously."

The ball was sticking in the pitch a bit, especially in the first innings, and Flower felt the RCB batters did well to take the team to a formidable total.

"We would have bowled first if we'd won the toss," he said. "The pitch was a little tricky and it might have felt a little slow to a lot of people, but there were little cameos along the way from a lot of our batting group, and good aggressive little cameos that took us to 190, and 190 is a big chase when the pressure of winning the cup is on. So even though we lost the toss, I thought we handled ourselves really well."

Flower also had praise for Dinesh Karthik for making a successful transition from a player last year to the team mentor and batting coach this season.

"I think some of our assistant coaches, DK [Karthik], Malo [Malolan Rangarajan], Richard Halsall, and Omkar Salvi, they've been outstanding," Flower said. "Having that Indian insight and knowledge in our coaching staff has been really important for this campaign this year. And DK particularly, I think as a mentor and batting specialist, he's been brilliant. I've loved working with him, he's got great energy, he has got a smile on his face most of the time.

"I think he's really enjoyed his job this year. It's quite a transition to make from playing to coaching, and he's done it amazingly well. It's very obvious that he's had an impact, certainly on the batting group, but he's certainly had an impact within the leadership of the management group, and the coaching group, and with the wider team. So he's a really impressive guy, a brilliant guy to spend some time with, and I've loved every minute of it."

Director of cricket Mo Bobat was another person to have impressed Flower, with his insights and auction strategy.

"I've worked with him [Bobat] a little bit with the England cricket board when we both worked for England," Flower said. "For such a young man to have such insight and knowledge and drive, he's incredibly impressive, and I think his leadership over the last couple of years… it has been really impressive to be close to him while he's been leading like he does. He's got a great brain, he's a good strategist, and he's a good man, so I've got tons of respect for him.

"The auction is a huge first step that you've got to try and get as right as possible, and part of Mo's philosophy, right up front, was to distribute the value a little more equitably, rather than spending too much on big-name batsmen, who are of course very fine players, but the importance of a good bowling attack was acknowledged absolutely adamantly right at the start, before the auction, and we worked towards that.

"I know after the first day of the auction, we were copping a little bit of flak. People thought we were investing our money rather than spending it, but it meant that there was some really good value to be had on the second day, and we had the money to then spend on that value, and we got guys like Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar], Krunal [Pandya], Tim David, Romario Shepherd, all on that second day. So that was really important. I think Suyash Sharma's done really well for us, our little legspinner. I thought he's handled himself really well through the season. Krunal is a big-match player and a great competitor, and that spell today was the major difference between the teams."