Padikkal was brilliant in IPL 2020: RCB coach Katich

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 2 : Things might have gone downhill for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as the 13th edition of the India Premier League (IPL) concluded, but head coach Simon Katich had already chalked out the plan for this season.
Katich revealed that by the time IPL 2020 ended, RCB had already started their preparation for the 2021 season and team management's focus was on the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and local domestic tournaments for roping in raw Indian talent.
Mohammed Azharuddeen, who smashed a 37-ball hundred in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, was bought by RCB in the IPL 2021 mini-auction in February.
"We have done a lot of reviewing right when the season finished because throughout the season you are looking at how you can improve, the areas in your game that should be improved to be at the best," said Katich in a video posted on RCB's Twitter handle.
"By the end of the season we took that time, pretty much weeks after to review and get all that done and plan ahead for not only the scouting process but also the auction process," he further said.
"So a lot of work was done particularly in a week straight after season. We did mock auctions, basically, it was following the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and a lot of local tournaments. We felt like we were ready for the options," Katich added.
Young batsman Devdutt Padikkal heavily impressed everyone with his calm and composed batting at the top of the order in IPL 2020. He smashed 473 runs in his first season of cash-rich league.
Katich said Padikkal was brilliant. The former Australian opener also praised the other Indian lot in the RCB camp.
"We made a conscious effort to try and keep the core of the group together and we felt in the last season there were a lot of positives. For the first times in a number of years we got to the playoffs," said Katich.
"The other part was that we did back a lot of young Indian talent and when I say that we backed the young kid Padikkal at top of the order. He had never played IPL, he didn't let us down he was brilliant," he further said.
"Washington Sundar was outstanding and has now played a lot of cricket for India both T20 and Test. We also backed Siraj and Saini with the ball," Katich added.
Katich is happy with how RCB has lined up ahead of the IPL. "We are really happy with the squad, we have picked a lot of Indian talent in the auction, we did a lot of scouting. We are happy with the mix we got. Dan Christian is a very experienced player, Maxwell, and Zampa too, so we have got a lot of experience also," said Katich.
RCB is set to play the IPL 2021 opener against Mumbai Indians on April 9 in Chennai.