Lack of crowd buzz a challenge for experienced players - Katich

With the Indian Premier League set to be played behind closed doors, Simon Katich, the head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore, feels it could work in the favour of the younger players. However, RCB boasts of a relatively experienced squad, with most of the players - barring Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed and Pavan Deshpande - having played in front of big crowds, and Katich said those players could find it a bit more challenging having been used to the buzz of packed stadiums.

"Personally, I think some of the younger players actually enjoy the fact that there will be little less pressure with less people at the ground creating all that noise and distraction," Katich told RCB TV on Friday (September 4). "It will be more of a challenge for some of the older guys that are used to the buzz of the crowd and getting the adrenaline going. But I think there will still be a lot of motivation within our squad to go out and perform well."

The preparations have already started for the Bengaluru-franchise after all their members served the quarantine period in the United Arab Emirates and were tested negative for COVID-19. With most of the players having not played any cricket for almost six months, Katich unveiled the plan of bringing them back to the frame of mind of playing competitively.

"The process has started in the last few months," he said. "The (coaching) staff has started working to prepare the players mentally. We've had a number of zoom sessions with a number of young players to start preparing them on what to expect from this IPL. So from that point of view, now the cricket side of things take over where they start preparing and training. So we can use this window knowing that the three weeks is the bare minimum that we need given that there has been such a long layoff. It's sort of a gradual process in the build up.

"The first week is about getting into the nets, getting the confidence back that they do this naturally. In the second week, it's about getting through physically alright, in the sense there is no niggle or soreness. Then we can up the intensity with the match scenario and practice. In the third week, that's when we got matches organised of getting them used to the pressure of playing games. It is a long tournament. We want to start well but we want to be mindful that we're playing well and sustain for eight weeks if you want to win it. You can't pick and choose when that can happen. So we have to be consistent and we're trying to impress that on the guys."

While admitting that playing the tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic could pose its set of challenges, Katich said that it is important to prepare players to not panic when plans change "The way I've approached this is with a fluid approach," he explained. "Things will change from day to day. But we got to understand that's the times we live in at the moment.

"There will be uncertainty. Things are going to be all over the place at times in terms of you have something planned and it will all change because of something unforeseen happening. There has to be an element of being relaxed and not be wound up about things changing at the last moment. I'm trying to approach it like that. But you plan for what you want to achieve and go forward with that."