Cameron Green. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) director of cricket Mo Bobat has stated that Cameron Green is the “ideal fit” for the franchise in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The Australian all-rounder, who was traded from Mumbai Indians to RCB, was officially confirmed as part of the team shortly after the IPL franchises announced their lists of retained and released players on November 26 ahead of the IPL 2024 mini-auction on December 19.
Bobat emphasized that Green brings a dynamic element to the three-time finalists, citing his impressive performances in batting, bowling, and fielding. He believes Green’s multifaceted skills make him an explosive addition to the RCB lineup.
“He’s the ideal fit for us in that middle-order power role. He’s a high-quality, skillful and powerful batsman. He’s got the game against both pace and spin. He’s got international experience across formats and I’m sure he will enjoy batting at the Chinnaswamy. So, seeing him do that will be really exciting. He’s also a fantastic bowler and he bowls with pace and bounce, which were certainly attributes we were looking for particularly in our home conditions. Let’s not forget what an exceptional fielder he is. Some of the catches he has taken in recent times fielding at gully is seriously impressive,” Bobat said on RCB Bold Diaries.
Bobat further elaborated on the rationale behind the last-minute trade involving Green. The strategic move aimed to bolster the middle order by injecting additional power into the lineup. He also revealed that they became aware of the Aussie’s potential availability for trade just a couple of hours before the retention and release deadline, prompting them to consider the opportunity seriously.
“If I go back to mid-morning yesterday [Sunday], we were pretty clear on our retentions and release decisions and we had communicated it to all of our players. We were pretty clear on what that meant for our auction priorities. So, felt like we were going to have a fairly quiet afternoon. If you look at the retentions and the decisions we made, we’ve obviously got a really strong top order and we wanted to enhance the middle order by adding a little bit of power.
“With a couple of hours off the retention and release deadline, we were made aware of Cameron’s potential availability for trade, which we had to take seriously. So, having spoken to the guys at MI, we got a small group of us together at our end we thought we better discuss this and debate the pros and cons of trying to make this trade work, which is what we did for a little bit of time,” he added.
“Essentially, we were trying to weigh up whether we take the risk of someone else picking up Cameron Green now, which could have happened before the deadline…hoping he makes it to the auction as a released player, but somebody else could’ve picked him up, which was obviously the case. Even then if you get to the auction, there’s no guarantee that you get him at the auction because you can easily be outbid,” he concluded.