Royal Challengers Bangalore became the first team in the IPL to have a woman support staff member with the appointment of Navnita Gautam as a massage therapist for IPL 2020.

As per a press release from the franchise on Thursday, Navnita will be working with head physiotherapist Evan Speechly and strength & conditioning coach Basu Shanker "to identify, evaluate, provide guidance and implement massage therapy to suit the team and any relevant prevailing conditions".

Navnita Gautam joins us as a sports massage therapist for the 13th edition of IPL. She will work to identify, and implement massage therapy to help the team prepare and recover better.
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We are proud to be the first IPL team to have a woman support staff member.
.#PlayBold pic.twitter.com/Y7CFR0WKDB

— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) October 17, 2019

She will also be responsible for performing specialised techniques pertaining to the preparation, motivation and physical ailments of individual players.

Talking about the appointment, the franchise chairman Sanjeev Churiwala said: "I am very pleased to be a part of this moment in history and another step in the right direction. The game has come a long way, in many ways, in terms of the women's cricket team and how many people are watching it, the interest was long due. Sport is a great enabler, but it is important to ensure that the principles of equity in participation also extends to its staffing bodies. Increasing participation and success by women in all sporting arenas have made this possible and we at RCB are very thrilled to have found great talent in Navnita."

In August, RCB, who are still looking for their maiden IPL title, had appointed former New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson as director of cricket and former Australia batsman Simon Katich as head coach in a complete overhaul of their support staff.