New role, new franchise, same old goal for Gujarat head coach and his charges
Hodge putting pride in IPL's Lions
Make no mistake, new franchise Gujarat Lions are not there just to make up the numbers – they've set themselves to win the Indian Premier League.
Gujarat is one of two new teams in the IPL this season – along with Rising Pune Supergiants – who have been granted a two-year licence after Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended until 2018 for their involvement in the 2013 spot-fixing and betting scandal.
While the franchise might be still finding its feet as they slowly assemble in their hometown of Rajkot, head coach Brad Hodge is setting his sights as high as possible in his first season at the helm.
"I sit here and think we can win the title," Hodge told Star Sports India. "That's the ambition.
"Every team would sit there and think 'if we could make the qualifiers or the finals you give yourself a 50-50 chance going into that'.
"My job is to get the best out of every individual and make sure that happens.
"I'm very much a person who doesn't need a lot of motivating. If I can get that across to the players hopefully it will take care of itself."
The squad is a mash-up of former Super Kings and Royals players, five of whom were acquired in the pre-auction draft: captain Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo.
Quick Single: Preview: Aussies galore in IPL9
The remainder of the 24-man roster was harvested at the human meat-mart – the IPL auction in February – with the likes of Dale Steyn, Dinesh Karthik and Dwayne Smith contracted.
"Looking back at the whole process before the auction, looking at the money situation I really think (new teams) Pune and the Lions were up against it," Hodge said.
"We had to find 14 players with a (limited) purse and we only had five (players already signed) while other teams had pretty much a full list.
"I think we did an exceptional job. I'm really happy with the team.
"There's some great match-winners there, some super talent."
Hodge says the biggest challenge facing the newborn franchise is the going through the teething problems his rivals, bar Pune, went through nine seasons ago.
"The hardest thing is starting fresh," he said. "Everything's hard for the administration, the management, the players – it's just brand new.
"People have to worry about new uniforms, grounds, ticket sales, all those sort of things that every other team pretty much has set in stone – the game plane is there, the recipe is there, they (the established teams) just have to follow it, whereas we're sort of up against it.
"Everyone's been working behind the scenes pretty hard to make sure everything's comfortable.
"As soon as you get the first game underway those things will flow a little bit easier and people will become accustomed and we'll just move on."
It's not only the operational pressures Gujarat faces, but the unifying of a group of players who will only fully gather just three days out from their first match against Kings XI Punjab on Monday.
Quick Single: Meet the 24-year-old in charge of the Lions
In a squad where six nations are represented – India, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and South Africa – getting his diverse bunch of players to bond is Hodge's first priority in camp.
"I've got a whole new team that I need to gel together," he said. "They need to work out their strengths and weaknesses pretty quickly.
"That's definitely a challenge because other teams, they pretty much know how everyone plays and how settled they are.
"The good thing for us is there's a new challenge of (creating) energy and atmosphere.
"Once everyone gets to know everyone, which is pretty much the task over the next few days, we should be fine."
As a coach, Hodge describes his style as "very relaxed and calm", relying on his vast experience in T20 cricket as the format's second-highest run-scorer, behind West Indian Chris Gayle, to help shape and influence his charges.
Quick Single: Paris's IPL Daredevils dreams dashed
But Hodge knows the advantages of analytics and the increasing role data plays in cricket, especially in the shortest version of the game.
"There are certain people who are more number-orientated, I'm probably more of an instinctive person – the knowledge is up there (brain)," Hodge said.
"But you certainly need to marry the two.
"In the last few weeks I've had a lot of numbers coming in, filtering through it, working through it.
"Some of it's great and some of it doesn’t matter, but you have got to have it.
"In a team of 20-odd people there's certain people that love that (data) and there's certain people that don't.
"I was always one that sat in the back of a team meeting and slept for about half an hour while all that stuff went on.
"Now as a coach I need to digest it all and present it.
"I'm very much an instinctive player and I now have to cater for everyone."