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3 RCB Mistakes Of Faf Du Plessis That Rajat Patidar Could Learn From Ahead Of IPL 2025

Probuddha Bhattacharjee

Faf du Plessis and Rajat Patidar [Source: @rishabh18v, @SanthosH_S13/x.com]Faf du Plessis and Rajat Patidar [Source: @rishabh18v, @SanthosH_S13/x.com]

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The Royal Challengers Bengaluru are one of the most followed teams in the Indian Premier League. Ahead of the 2025 season, RCB released the captain for the previous three seasons, Faf du Plessis.

They tried their best to accumulate the best team for their IPL 2025 journey. After assimilating the side, they appointed Rajat Patidar as their skipper. Under Faf du Plessis, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru performed well, but failed to deliver the final nail in the coffin. As Patidar takes up the responsibility, here are three mistakes of his predecessor from which he can take valuable lessons from. 

3. Using His Main Bowlers Cleverly

RCB have always suffered due to the absence of a quality bowler. However, Faf du Plessis struggled to allocate his resources correcty. In some crucial games, it seemed like that he either used up his bowling resources too quickly or left them to be used too late.

This is one of the biggest mistake that Rajat Patidar can learn from. Looking at the RCB squad for IPL 2025, two of his biggest resources in the pace bowling department will be Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. 

Patidar can look to use them carefully. While  he can use both of them at the start of the innings. While he uses him most of Hazlewood's overs during the opening stages of the games, he can keep a few of Bhuvi's over for the end because of the death over specific skills. 

While he manages these two main bowlers, Patidar can look to use other bowlers as support cast during the various stages of a match.

2. Backing His Bowlers

One prime thing noticed during Faf du Plessis' reign in RCB was that they often failed to back their bowlers. A prominent example was the underuse of Alzarri Jospeh, who was bought by Royal Challengers Bengaluru for ₹11.50 Cr ahead of IPL 2024. The franchise did not use him after he failed to deliver as per expectations in the first couple of games.

This is also something that Rajat Patidar, the captain can learn from. He needs to back his bowlers more. The management as a whole need to allow a player the team to get settled with how the franchise functions and what the team demands from him. 

1. Proper Utilisation Of Batters

RCB have often suffered due to top heavy batting line-up. In crunch matches, they have often felt the need of a proper batter in the middle-order. As far as the squad composition is concerned, they hav built a much more balanced side. They have players like Jacob Bethell and Liam Livingstone who could leave great impact in the middle-order.

So, Rajat Patidar needs to have a chat with the management and then implement proper utilisation of his batters in the line-up. One of the things, that Patidar needs to concentrate on is distributing his impact batters in the line-up, espeically in the crunch games.