A once familiar face inflicted the most telling blow to Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s hopes of qualifying to the Qualifier II. Yuzvendra Chahal, who spent eight seasons with RCB and was not retained in the 2022 auction, dismissed an in-form Virat Kohli in a decisive moment of the game.
His non-retention was a shock because he was one of their most consistent bowlers, even as others shifted in and out of the side, their highest wicket-taker by a few leagues, he knew the quirks of the ground, and had emotionally invested in the franchise. He spoke emotionally in a podcast, when RCB refused to retain him: “I felt very bad. My main journey started in 2014. I also felt very weird because I played for the franchise for eight years, I would also say that I got the India cap because of my performances for RCB because they gave me a chance to perform..”
It is an understatement to say that RCB missed him this season. Chahal alone took 18 wickets for Royals; RCB’s spinners managed only 22 wickets. It hurt them even more at home, where they lost three of the seven games. Chahal, thus, embodies their flawed auction policies. Former coach and pundit Mike Hesson concurred. “It’s a matter of prioritizing your bowling attack, and also having a spinner that can take wickets for you at Chinnaswamy is critical. Where they went wrong is just leading up to the auction, where they made some decisions and wanted to change the bowling attack,” he told The Indian Express.
ICYMI!
Yuzvendra Chahal gets the big wicket of Virat Kohli 🙌
WATCH 🎥🔽 #TATAIPL | #RRvRCB | #Eliminator | #TheFinalCall
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 22, 2024
Not having a high-grade spinner haunted them throughout the season, as they went with the merry-go-round of Karn Sharma (nine games), Swapnil Singh (seven) and Mayank Dagar (five), besides all-rounder Glenn Maxwell. None of them possessed the expertise or experience to be a lead spinner throughout the season. Their lack of cutting edge meant the medium pacers’ did the bulk of the labour. The most frequently used Sharma bowled 24 overs, that is less than an average of three overs a game.
It’s not Chahal alone that they let go. But leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel and Josh Hazlewood. “When you get rid of Harshal, Hazlewood and Hasaranga, who are they going to replace them with?” Hesson, who is part of JioCinema’s IPL commentary panel, asks.
Worse, instead of pressing for a spinner, they broke the bank of seam-bowling all-rounder Cameron Green. Little doubt that he exudes talent, but it was not his skill sets that they required. “Green, who they got in the trade sort of added a little bit of confusion to the balance (of the side). So all of it meant, they entered the auction with not as much purse as they wanted and they were unable to get the right targets. You bind those two things and you leave the auction with probably not the bowling attack that you would want hitting into an IPL season,” Hesson says.
The bowling, thus, was rendered one-dimensional whereas on a placid surface with short boundaries, the home side required extremely guileful bowlers with a variety or tricks in their bag. “It is about having a high quality skillset. You either have to have a USP to be able to create some opportunities, or you have to be very crafty and very, very disciplined in your execution under pressure and both of those are difficult,” Hesson explains. RCB bowlers hit neither on a consistent level.
Yuzvendra Chahal of Rajasthan Royals celebrates the wicket of Virat Kohli of Royal Challengers Bangalore during the eliminator match of the Indian Premier League season 17 (IPL 2024) between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore held at the Narendra Modi Stadium , Ahmedabad on the 22nd May 2024. (Photo by Vipin Pawar / Sportzpics for IPL)
Incumbent coach Andy Flower had admitted much the same during their horrific run of one win in eight games. “The Chinnaswamy has some particular qualities that we need to be able to exploit. You certainly need highly skillful bowlers here. Simply pace is not going to be the answer there. You need skillful, intelligent bowlers and people that can bowl to really specific plans at Chinnaswamy,” Flower had said.
The game against SRH, in which they posted 287 for 4, exposed their lack of variety in bowling. No one bowled express pace; no one bowled high-grade spin, no one possessed extraordinary variations. There was not a single bowler who assured four tight overs or wickets every game. Their most experienced hand Mohammed Siraj was typically blow hot, blow cold; so was youngster Yash Dayal.
No fire, power
Such an erratic bowling firm could only be salvaged by a high-flying group of batsmen. Kohli was in incredible form, Faf du Plessis scored 448, Rajat Patidar blossomed, and Dinesh Karthik chipped in with valuable runs down the order. But they lacked pure firepower, especially in the middle overs. Or the presence of young Indian batsmen. Royals have Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag, Kolkata Knight Riders possess Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh and Sunrisers boast the breakout star of the season, Abhishek Sharma. “They need to show more faith in Indians, especially in Indian talent. I don’t think in the past 16 years any Indian batter apart from Virat Kohli has scored more than 1000 runs (for RCB), and Virat is at 8000. That shows that you don’t have any confidence in Indian talent,” pointed out former cricketer Ambati Rayudu.
The abysmal form of Maxwell—52 runs in nine outings—further stalled their run rate in the middle overs, forcing Karthik to perform the heavy-lifting duties. “I think we’ve all seen how the power game has affected T20 cricket recently. So on the batting front you certainly need to recruit batsmen with that sort of power that can keep up that sort of tempo,” Flower admitted.
So from spin-bowling woes to power-hitting troubleshoots, there is a lot on the platter when Flower and Co plan their next season. Let the dream-run not mask the flaws.
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