• Home
  • Cricket Analysis
  • Ipl 2024 Over Reliance On Kohli To Dubious Selections 3 Things That Went Wrong For Rcb

IPL 2024, Over-reliance on Kohli to Dubious selections - 3 Things That Went Wrong For RCB

RCB team hurdle vs RR [iplt20.com]RCB team hurdle vs RR [iplt20.com]

Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by six wickets and five balls to spare to extend their winning streak. They leapfrog to the top of the table with four back-to-back wins, leaving RCB wrecked with four losses in five matches.

Virat Kohli’s eighth IPL ton propelled RCB to 183/3 in 20 overs. However, a mammoth 148-run between Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler paved the way for RR chase with the Englishman finishing the chase with a six sealing his ton.

With RCB losing their fourth game in five matches, let us analyse what went wrong with one of the oldest franchise of the bonanza tournament.


Fragile bowling attack

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been one of the most underperforming team in the bowling department. Despite the second game against Punjab Kings, their bowlers look off-coloured. Mayank Dagar, their primary spinner has bagged just a solitary wicket from five matches.

Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal have blown hot and cold while Cameron Green and Alzarri Joseph (played first three matches) have failed to justify his prize tag. After Reece Topley removed Yashasvi Jaiswal for a silver duck, their bowling unit allowed a 148-run stand between Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler which triggered the Rajasthan Royals win.


Over-reliance on Kohli

The current orange cap holder, Virat Kohli has mustered 316 in five innings with an amusing average of 105.33. However, the next best RCB batter, Faf du Plessis has scored 109 runs in five innings and ranks 20th in the orange cap leaderboard.

Kohli has carried the RCB batting single-handedly in most games with decent support from the lower middle order that includes Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat and Mahipal Lomror. A team cannot win tournaments on the basis of a single individuals performance as is the case with the Bengaluru side. It was Kohli again who smashed a century and paved the way for a 183 run total. However, he too failed to switch to the top gear as the innings progressed, and players around him scored in single digits with Faf du Plessis being the only exception.


Dubious selection

Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been making selection calls that aren’t bearing the fruits. The constant backing of Mayank Dagar, the player they traded for Shahbaz Ahmed is not yielding positive results for the team. The left-arm spinner bagged just a solitary wicket in five games while Karn Sharma was their best spinner and has been warming the bench.

Ahead of the clash against RR, RCB had the worst strike rate in the powerplay. They had too many options with the new ball in Reece Topley, Yash Dayal and Mohammed Siraj. But the team lacked an attacker during the middle overs phase and during the slog overs.

Lockie Ferguson had an incredible outing against Australia in the lead up the IPL but the RCB think tank have overlooked the Kiwi paceman. Also, they have a local talent in Vyshak Vijaykumar who has a repertoire of varying the pace with cutters and could have been an apt option on two-paced or tacky surfaces as that of in Jaipur. However, the management chose to overlook them and roped in Saurav Chauhan who was sent ahead of Dinesh Karthik after the 17th over. Also, the impact player Himanshu Sharma left no mark in the opposition batters, adding yet another woe.