Don’t think you can take a conservative approach in T20 cricket: Kumble

Punjab Kings are yet to win an Indian Premier League title but have managed to assemble quite a squad, at least on paper, for the forthcoming edition. They managed to acquire the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Rahul Chahar, Shahrukh Khan, Liam Livingstone, Odean Smith and Raj Angad Bawa in the mega auction and head coach Anil Kumble said the idea was to focus on players who aren’t one-dimensional.

"This was the first opportunity I had to be at a mega auction. We certainly had a strategy in place and wanted to go after players who we believed fitted easily in the format. That’s the sort of cricket we wanted to play and we went searching for those players. We were glad that we were able to put together a reasonably good squad," the former India legspinner told Hindustan Times.

"We needed flexibility. We needed players with a secondary skill. That’s the approach we took. Because with the retention, the choice is not necessarily the franchises’ decision, it is the player’s decision. That’s what the rules are. Once we retained Mayank (Agarwal) and Arshdeep (Singh), we wanted to build a team where we could make the bowling strong.

"When I say strong bowling, we wanted young bowlers, with enough experience to give us the comfort of having a young bowling attack…You look at a Rabada, Arshdeep, Rahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar as your four main bowlers, and Odean Smith—he is someone who can bowl a heavy ball. Those are the kind of options we wanted. In Liam Livingstone, we have the flexibility of getting in some spin."

Kumble wants his team to play an aggressive brand of cricket. “No, I don’t think we ever wanted any player to restrain himself. In this format, I don’t think you can take a conservative approach. The natural ability of a Mayank or a Shikhar is to attack. Even with the rest of the players, I don’t think there will be any approach to curb their natural instincts. That has never been my approach at all.”

Talking about the importance of data in T20 cricket, Kumble said: “Rajgopal Sankar (cricket consultant) has been with me for the last two years. We got him for his ability, understanding of the game and data that he has access to. He goes pretty deep in analysis. Dan Weston (analyst on the County circuit and The Hundred) came in on Sankar’s recommendation only for the auction as we wanted someone who can bring in an independent approach to our thinking. 

“I use a lot of data. We put a strategy in place and look at players who fit into it. That’s exactly how we went about not just picking the known players but even some of the domestic players, where we did some depth charts. Sankar worked on that over two months leading up to the auction. At the table, it is always a challenge to get who you want. We were happy that more or less we got who we wanted.”