Inside RCB’s year-round player hunt ahead of WPL

When RCB entered the 2025 WPL auction room here on Thursday, there wasa sense of quiet certainty around their table.

- Samreen Razzaqui

For Malolan Rangarajan, their head coach this season who also works in scouting roles across RCB's men’s and women’s teams, that calmness was a result of years of repetition and a kind of muscle memory. “We got about 85-90% of what we wanted,” Rangarajan told HT. “Our clarity came from experience. A lot of what happened looked very similar to the IPL 2025 mega auction. Knowing how the first sets can explode with money kept us alert.”

It is that dual exposure across two teams, two leagues and two talent pipelines that gives Rangarajana panoramic view of Indian's scouting ecosystem.

The former Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand cricketer has been scouting for RCB’s men’s team since 2019. He was assistant to Luke Williams for the women’s team last WPL, and will don the role of head coach for the upcoming season after Williams stepped down.