5 players whose poor form hurt RCB the most in IPL 2024 ft. Glenn Maxwell
Another season, another opportunity missed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to lift the IPL trophy. RCB were having a dismissal season, having won only one of the first seven matches. Nobody would have imagined what was coming next: a complete change in fortune, RCB winning six in a row, and qualifying for the playoffs.
RCB faced the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the elimination match of IPL 2024. The top four batters got starts for RCB, but no one was able to convert them into big innings, resulting in a below-par total of 172 runs.
In response, Rajasthan started well, but Bengaluru stayed in the hunt by taking wickets at crucial points. Riyan Parag (36) played a decent inning under pressure, and in the end, Rovman Powell remained composed to finish it for RR.
What hurt RCB most was the poor form of some of their key players. Some players struggled the entire tournament, while others had a bad first half and rebounded well in the second half. As RCB bow out of yet another season, let's look at five players whose poor form hurt them the most in IPL 2024.
#5 Alzarri Joseph
The West Indian pacer was bought by Bengaluru for a whopping INR 11.5 crore. Alzarri was supposed to be the main bowler for RCB, along with Mohammed Siraj. However, things didn’t go the way RCB fans would have hoped.
Alzarri was dropped after three matches, and he never made a return. The right-arm pacer could only pick one wicket and conceded runs at an economy of 11.9 in the three matches he played. In the later half of the season, RCB continued to show faith in Lockie Ferguson as Alzarri found himself on the bench for most of the tournament.
#4 Mayank Dagar
Ahead of the 2024 season, Mayank Dagar was traded to RCB from SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). With no such marquee spinner in the ranks, the left-arm orthodox was supposed to play a crucial role for the franchise.
However, Mayank couldn’t take his chances and soon lost his place to Karn Sharma. The RCB player picked only one wicket and conceded runs at an economy of 10.1 in the five matches he played. He was not able to replicate what Shahbaz Ahmed had been doing for RCB in the previous seasons.
#3 Mohammed Siraj
Mohammed Siraj has been the leading pacer for RCB for some time. He had a brilliant IPL 2023, where he took 19 wickets in 14 matches. However, he struggled in the first half of the 2024 season, which made RCB's bowling unit look very weak.
In the first six matches, the Indian pace bowlers managed to pick only four wickets and went for plenty. Subsequently, he was dropped for a match. However, he made a comeback in the second half and also took two important wickets in the eliminator game against Rajasthan.
#2 Faf du Plessis
To the surprise of many, RCB captain Faf du Plessis didn’t have a good season with the bat as per the standards he has set for himself. In the 2023 season, Faf scored 730 runs at an average of 56.1.
However, in the IPL 2024, the RCB captain only managed to score 438 runs at an average of 29.2. Even though he hit four half-centuries, he struggled to have a big inning to his name. In the 15 matches, Faf was dismissed within the powerplay 10 times, showing his struggle in the IPL 2024.
#1 Glenn Maxwell
Glenn Maxwell was coming into IPL 2024 after having an amazing 2023 season in which he scored 400 runs. However, the 2024 season turned out to be the worst for the Australian player. Maxwell scored 52 runs at an average of 5.7 in the nine innings.
The RCB player had a chance to redeem himself in the Eliminator, but he was dismissed for a first-ball duck, shattering RCB's hopes of having a big total. Maxwell never got going in the tournament and was benched for a few games. Arguably, this was the worst season for the Australian player, which considerably affected RCB’s performance.