Virat Kohli And…? 3 RCB Players Who Need To Shut Down Critics In IPL 2025

Virat Kohli in IPL 2024 (Source: @LokeshVirat18K/X.com)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru is one of the most high-profile franchise in IPL and every year, there fan come in full enthusiasm to support their team. They have not won a single IPL trophy though and have made some big changess ahead of 2025 season.

The trio of Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal are still there, but rest of the arsenal has been changed. They have brought together a good blend of experience and youth for IPL 2025 and there are plenty of players who have a point to prove in the upcoming edition. Thus, ahead of the season, let's see the three RCB stars who need to shut down critics.

1. Virat Kohli

The legendary batter is at the fag end of his career and has achieved almost everything that one can imagine in world of cricket. However, there are still plenty of fans who tend to underestimate the star. There are doubt over his ability to play at a required strike-rate in T20 cricket and it has been a constant question in the last few years.

Virat Kohli's Strike-Rate In IPL Year-Wise

As evident from the table, Virat Kohli has batted at an impressive strike-rate in the last two IPL seasons. He was also the Orange Cap holder in the last season with 741 runs, but a poor T20 World Cup where he could not fire apart from the final game has increased voices of critics again. In the T20 World Cup 2024, he scored 151 runs in eight matches at a strike-rate of just 112.69 and average of 18.88 and it was followed by some indifferent performances at the international level.

Thus, there is doubt over Virat Kohli's ability to score runs consistently at a good strike-rate and as Kohli as always done in the past, it is another opportunity for the superstar to prove his critics wrong.

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2. Jitesh Sharma

Jitesh Sharma grabbed plenty of eyeballs in IPL 2022 with his ability to get going right from the ball one. He played plenty of match-winning knocks in IPL 2022 and scored his runs at a strike-rate of 163.33 and then followed it up with an even better season in 2023 with over 300 runs.

Jitesh Sharma's Batting Stats In IPL 2024

He also played for India after those impressive IPL stinits, and came up with some sparkling knocks. However, a poor IPL 2024 brought his stocks down drastically and he was not included in India's T20I squad. As seen in the table, he had a very poor season last year with a highest score of just 32, but RCB still bought him for 11 Crore, and it has been considered as a blunder by many fans.

Thus, Jitesh Sharma desperately need to prove his distractors wrong and turn up as a consistent finisher for RCB to bring back faith in his abilities.

3. Bhuvneshwar Kumar

The veteran pacer is no longer a part of Indian setup and there are speculations that his time at the top competitive level is almost over. He has been one of the finest bowlers Indian cricket has produced and is one of the greats of IPL as well. However, his franchise SRH also left him ahead of IPL 2025 after 11 seasons, and it shows that his stocks have been falling apart.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar In IPL 2024

As mentioned in the table, he could not pick wickets at regular intervals in the last season contrary to what he used to do at his peak. He was also expensive, and in the last five seasons, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has picked just 48 wickets. 

He was still bought for 10.75 Crore by RCB, and the right-arm pacers needs to find his vintage swing and yorkers to shut down his criticism in IPL 2025.

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