IPL 2018: 3 players responsible for Royal Challengers Bangalore’s failure
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s IPL season is done and dusted. Defeat against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday has ended their late surge for a playoff place and sealed their fate.
They have struggled a lot this season and won only six out of their 14 league games. One reason for their failure is the team selection in the 2018 auction. They failed to buy a recognized domestic batsman to support Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.
Also, their bowling attack did not have a death over specialist and they conceded a lot of runs late in the innings. Apart from Umesh Yadav and Chahal, all the other RCB’s bowlers were inconsistent.
On that note, let’s take a look at the players who attributed to their downfall this season.
#1 Chris Woakes
The English all-rounder had an exceptional 2017 IPL campaign. Chris Woakes picked up 17 wickets last season at an economy rate of 8.77.
He was RCB’s most expensive signing in the 2018 auction. Bought for a whopping Rs 7.4 crores, the 29-year-old came into the RCB squad to lead their bowling attack.
However, he failed to deliver goods for his new franchise and was nowhere to be seen after the first half of the campaign.
In five appearances this season, Woakes has picked up a total of eight wickets. He leaked a lot of runs and went for an economy rate of 10.36.
He was poor in the death overs and allowed batsmen to dominate his bowling. After a string of disappointing bowling performances, he was replaced by Tim Southee in the playing XI.