SRH vs RR, IPL 2024: Leadership, responsibility and discipline, key for Royals’ success, says director Sangakkara

Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara said his team’s campaign had been pretty settled and pretty good so far.

“I think the key has been that the players have taken a lot of responsibility and leadership in how they want to play. And continuously they’ve done all the things, all the basics really well in terms of what they’ve set out for themselves,” Sangakkara said on the eve of the IPL league match against Sunrisers Hyderabad here on Wednesday.

“And it’s very easy as a coaching group when the players take that leadership and responsibility and right from Sanju Samson as captain and leader down to everyone else, they’ve been very, very good at repeating their processes and being very disciplined. So, you’re in control of nine matches,” he said.

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Questioned whether the team might catch up with the law of averages at this stage, a smiling Sangakkara said he didn’t know about that and how it actually applied.

“For us, we just want to not look too far ahead. I think it’s a pretty stock standard answer. If you ask anyone if they’re at a stage like this, you’ll always hear the same thing. You’ll take one game at a time and try and do the same things,” Sangakkara said.

“We’ll try and do our best. I think we have a lot of skill in the group. They’re very focussed in terms of what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve it. And, I don’t see much change from here for us. When things are going well and they’re working, we just have to keep trying to get a little bit better every time and learn from each game,” he said.

On tomorrow’s game, Sangakkara said that the home team had been playing very good cricket. “They’ve been playing very good cricket. And, so have we. Ultimately, in cricket, it’s about skill versus skill. So everyone will have to be up for whatever’s going to happen out there tomorrow,” he said.

“When it comes to those key moments, if you stay calm and concentrate on doing your job as was planned and as you know how to do it and just worry about execution, the rest is really up to who executes better. And a lot of our focus has been on just doing our basics as well as we can,” Sangakkara said.

On whether he was surprised by the kind of hitting in this IPL, Sangakkara said not really.

“I think the more you play T20 cricket, everyone identifies how they want to play. They get familiar with conditions. They have specific ways of playing. And, once you’re more familiar with that, you’re in the third year of a cycle. So most teams know what really works for them and what doesn’t,” he said.

“So, that allows them to really go out and do what we’ve seen in this IPL. The economy rates have gone up. The boundary ratios have probably gone up as well. We’ve seen some insane batting and insane hitting. And, that’s very good. And bowlers, unfortunately at times, have taken up a beating,” Sangakkara said.

“But at the same time, it puts pressure on them to evolve and adapt as well. So I think all in all, it’s been a great IPL for all the teams and for the fans. And it’s interesting to see how that can further develop as the IPL goes along into its next cycle,” he said.

“I think we’re very proud of the players who have made it to the Indian team for the T20 World Cup. They’ve worked really hard. It’s been tough for all the players who were there or thereabouts. And until the final announcement is made, I can understand how their minds would have been,” Sangakkara said.

“But, I think a lot of credit should also be given to those players because they’ve tried their best to shut out all of that and try and play a good IPL. And that’s worked for them,” he said.

On how different it is for the support staff to mentor those fringe players at this stage after they failed to make it to the Indian team, Sangakkara said one had to be realistic about what a World Cup meant and how many places there really were up for grabs.

“I think from Rajasthan apart from the IPL we’ve got a wonderful core of players that can play for India for a very very long time,” he “The reality is with limited places people have to miss out and you have to be able to accept that and be very realistic and pragmatic about it. The only way you can, what you can do in terms of reacting to anything is keep moving forward,” Sangakkara said.

“Keep doing what you’re doing better, improve and grow. And, I think that’s the message from us to all other players who might have missed out. But we’re very happy that not just the support staff but the players are all in that space where they understand that,” he said.

On the Indian team for the T20 World Cup, Sangakkara said he thought it was an extremely strong squad.

“They’ve got their batting covered, they’ve got their all-rounder in. They’ve got very very high quality spin as well and they’ve got some very good combinations that they can play,” he said.

“And I think going to the West Indies, knowing the conditions there, I’m sure Rahul (Dravid) and Rohit Sharma would have had a pretty good idea of what the squad should be like for them to play the cricket they want in the West Indies in this World Cup,” Sangakkara said.

“ And, they’ll be having not just one but two or three different combinations they can play depending on whether they want a deeper batting line-up or more strength in their bowling. But I think it’s a really well-balanced squad, a very very strong squad and India’s always been very strong in international tournaments,” he said.