When Mandeep Singh, one of IPL’s domestic stars, said this in a chat with Wisden.com two days before Royal Challengers Bangalore’s first home game of IPL 2018, against Kings XI Punjab, he would not have guessed that he’d be called upon to fulfil that role as early as April 13.

Chasing 156 for victory, Royal Challengers were 87-4 in the 12th over, still needing 69 runs off 48 balls. R Ashwin had just finished his four overs, dismissing Quinton de Kock and Sarfaraz Khan in his last. While AB de Villiers was not yet on 50 – he was unbeaten on a run-a-ball 21 at the time – Mandeep’s role when he came out to bat was pretty much the same.

This wasn’t the first time that Mandeep and de Villiers had rescued Bangalore. In the Eliminator in 2015 against Rajasthan Royals, the duo added 113 runs for the third wicket, in what Mandeep described as “challenging conditions” in Pune.

“I remember one innings with him in Pune, the [Eliminator] in 2015. The ball was doing a lot,” Mandeep recalled. Bangalore finished with 180-4, being 46-2 at one stage, and won the match by 71 runs after Rajasthan were bowled out for 109.

“I was on zero after six balls, but I scored a 50 (54) and he scored 60-odd (66). We won the game in very challenging conditions. I think about that innings because I had a good head position. That was the year he told me [about head position] and that paid off.”

Elaborating on the advice he received from his senior, Mandeep said, “A lot of coaches used to tell me about my head falling [over] because I was playing away from the body.

“[De Villiers] said, ‘I will stand in front of you and you play’. Slowly, my head position improved and with it I had more time against the fast bowlers. That’s one advice that helped me a lot.”

Mandeep scored 157 runs from 14 games at 22.42 and a strike-rate of 157 in the 2015 season. And with more chances to learn from de Villiers, he’ll be hoping to improve on that.