The challenge with returning to the next year of the RCB podcast was to avoid the season 2 slump. Season 1 of “How IPL changed my life” had the high-emotion rags to riches stories. How do we capture the same level of emotion and maintain a newness to conversations with many of the same players?
Season 2 was about The Gamechangers — asking players to look back at game-changing moments in their life, on and off the field. Research for this was much harder, trawling through old scorecards and interviews to identify special moments and talking points, sometimes from junior or club cricket even.
It meant Virat Kohli opened up about his relationship with MS Dhoni and with his wife Anushka Sharma. Faf du Plessis spoke about the tough love from his dad. Dinesh Karthik explained how he dealt with the rise of Dhoni, and Harshal Patel brought up the Pale Blue Dot.
As ever, I loved the chance to work with Gaurav Vaz of All Things Small and RCB’s Ajith Ramamurthy. And I will always be in awe of how Danish Sait can make his interviewees so comfortable.