RCB coach Daniel Vettori says it was tough to say goodbye to Chris Gayle

In the Indian Premier League’s history of 10 years, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have boasted of some of the best players. Yet, year after year, they have failed to reach the coveted title. This year, RCB captain Virat Kohli will be eager to lead his side to the trophy. This year, the franchise let go its star player Chris Gayle, who was benched for most of the season last year.

RCB’s coach Daniel Vettori, speaking to cricbuzz, said that it was hard to drop Chris Gayle, who has churned out some amazing performances for them in the past. However, it was done in the best interest of the team, he added. The 39-year-old is associated with several franchise cricket leagues around the world.

“It will be sad. You look at what he has done for the franchise in the time that he has been here. We recently went through our records and he dominates all of them. He has been a fantastic player for RCB and it was tough to say goodbye. But the timing was right for us. We wish him well,” Vettori told.

RCB has a strong team this year

Kohli’s dismal form in 2017 season had a huge impact on RCB who finished at the bottom of the table. This year, the batsman will be hoping to replicate his international numbers in the cash-rich tournament. This year the IPL batting line-up looks much stronger with Kohli, Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock, Parthiv Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Manan Vohra and Mandeep Singh a part of it.

Unlike last year, when they had no proper bowling attack, they have a few versatile bowlers this year in Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Woakes, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Colin de Grandhomme, Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar.

Also, in Daniel Vettori as the head coach, Gary Kirsten as the Batting Coach and Ashish Nehra as bowling coach, the team boasts of a good support staff too.

IPL 11 begins on April 7 in Mumbai and RCB play their first game against KKR on April 8.