Royal Challengers of Bangalore named after one of the owner Vijay Mallya’s signature products Royal Challenge has had a mixed bag in the sixteen seasons of IPL – none of the high-profile teams has promised so much and underachieved perennially. Not winning IPL trophy has almost become synonymous with RCB and there are countless jokes and memes which say RCB will win next year. Everyone has been wanting C in RCB to be Champions, but it has almost become Chokers. If I may make the analogy, I would call them South African team of IPL who also kicks off ICC tourneys with bang to falter at the business end and choke themselves out.
RCB mind you, have made the playoffs 8 out of 16 times in IPL’s teenage life – not a bad conversion ratio. Fans find it disappointing because they are RCB, with strong fan following only rivaled by the two showstoppers of IPL – Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings who each boast of 5 and 4 pieces of hardware respectively. They even have almost 48% of the games which is not terrible either almost an even steven after 16 seasons. The issue here is that they still have bare trophy cabinet. What is ailing RCB though?
One may wonder, for all these 16 seasons, amongst the best all time white ball cricketer Virat Kohli (maybe even all format) has called RCB home. Virat has performed more often than not and if you look at some of the Indian and International legends who have donned the RCB jerseys over the decade and a half, the case gets even more curious and baffling. Almost borrowing from the name of the movie, you can have a Curious Case of RCB as movie name.
Who’s who of the game have called RCB home at some point of their career – starting with Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kevin Pietersen, Yuvraj Singh, AB De Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Faf Du Plessis, Chris Gayle, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Anil Kumble, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzi Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Parthiv Patel, Aaron Finch, Zaheer Khan, Mitchell Starc, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wasim Jaffer, Moeen Ali are just some of the high profile names that immediately come to mind. High percentage of these have been hall of famers. These gentlemen make you sit up in awe and most of them have won umpteen battles on their own for their respective countries and clubs and had some solid records for RCB also. Personnel is definitely not an issue for RCB. Legends have been wanting to rub their shoulders with Virat and RCB has always been able to attract talent.
RCB always have always been a bit too overdependent on their top order and though that has been rectified of late with procuring of good bowlers, but their over reliance on top order has definitely been one of the pain points over the years. Compare RCB to someone like Mumbai Indians this year and Mumbai definitely over achieved despite having pedestrian bowling attack and their mainstay Rohit Sharma having a lukewarm season. They have at times failed to extract similar performances from players who made it big elsewhere under the tutelage of more acclaimed leaders such as MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma or Hardik Pandya.
Compared to teams like Chennai and Mumbai which have been ruling the bourses, Bengaluru has not had good grassroots program or farm system as the word is commonly used in American sports. Scouting talent isn’t a skill that has been flashed around with RCB’s name. Bengaluru has been going after big names – real big names but they have fallen short. Justifiable for few years but when you have a talent like Virat especially who has been with you for sixteen years and you still haven’t crossed over despite having some all star coaches as well, then the problem definitely lies somewhere. Do I know the solution? No, I don’t because if a common man like me could lay a finger on something and say this is the problem, I, myself am wasting writing this. Have a better opportunity beckoning me but alas. We all can speculate but it is not easy to articulate what is ailing RCB.
Kevin Pietersen has now gone on record to ask Virat to move to Delhi Capitals and one wonders why. DC is only other among the super metros that has not tasted success in IPL, if any, DC might have a poorer record than RCB. Maybe Virat can go back to his Delhi roots and be a popular figure there, but he transcends above a particular metro and has demigod status wherever cricket is played. Yes, Virat needs that elusive championship considering he has got all others in his India jersey.
We are talking about RCB’s woes here and Virat is no way that; if any, he is the among the major reasons why they have had fairly decent stats in regular season. The business end is where RCB has been faltering and those who know Virat can attest that as the pressure increases, Virat performs better. He is a fighter in every possible way. But then cricket is a team game and others need to put their hand up consistently. There have been occasional sparklers from RCB stable but not consistent enough to take them home over the finish line. RCB has their share of near misses with three (yes, three) runner-up trophies so one might argue that it is a matter of time, but those three runner-up trophies were won in 2009, 2011 and 2016 hence the noise decibel is higher. Indian fans and especially the ones in Bengaluru want their hero to be triumphant and unfortunately, that is driving their anxiety so much so what Kevin Pietersen suggested.
One of the major areas that RCB needs to work on is team combination. Being too top heavy doesn’t bode well if two of the top 3 have an off night. They need to take wickets and stop runs – simple mantra but easier said than done. RCB’s death bowling has also been a major issue over the years and number of winnable games have succumbed into defeat at that juncture. RCB has been a great collection of individual players who are not operating like a symphonic orchestra and maybe they are but the team is getting outwitted more often than not. Other teams have been able to deliver more with less and expectations are always going to be higher when you have number of premium legends of the game plying their trade at Chinnaswamy stadium and calling it home. The RCB fans and most importantly, Virat Kohli deserves better. Would be an injustice if he hangs up his boots without winning IPL trophy.
In conclusion, RCB team management needs to introspect and look for immediate answers. Newer teams like Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants have already thrown their names in the hats with 2 out of 2 on playoffs (2 seasons, 2 playoffs) and teams like Rajasthan Royals have been better than RCB. KKR and SRH have already drank the champagne in the past so that brackets RCB with Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals. These three teams have not been able to land themselves in the top spot but expectations from RCB are much higher and rightly so, as they have been fielding some of the best names in business.
Good Luck to RCB for 2024 but for me, till they win, it will be a curious case of RCB.
