5 reasons why RCB have struggled so far in this year’s IPL
The 10th edition of IPL hasn’t brought a lot of happiness for RCB so far. Two weeks into the tournament and the Bangalore-based franchise find themselves at the bottom of the table. If the losses in themselves are painful to deal with, their inconsistency with both and ball hasn’s been very promising.
Quite honestly, RCB have struggled in all the departments; the batting hasn’t clicked as a unit, and that in turn has put a lot of pressure on their bowling. And they haven’t shown the same intensity in the field either.
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It all started with injuries to their star players. It’s true that voids left by Kohli and de Villiers are hard to fill, but the rest of the players have failed miserably and as a result, they are in a precarious situation.
Momentum is a key thing in cricket, more so in long tournaments such as the IPL. Sadly though, RCB seem to have none of it. With a solitary win – a hard fought one at that – in 5 games so far, the Kohli-led team would look to sort out their issues soon and get some wins under their belt before things get out of control.
Let us look at 5 main reasons why RCB have struggled so far in this year’s IPL:
#1 What’s the right combination?
The fact that RCB have played different XIs in all five matches so far tells the story in itself. There’s been a lot of chopping and changing with no real change in the result.
The absence of Kohli and de Villiers meant they had to try different batsmen and combinations at the top, but no one really grabbed the opportunity.
And the bowling department too has been struggled. – Aniket Chaudhary, Iqbal Abdulla and Aussie pacer Billy Stanlake have looked good in patches but have failed to provide breakthroughs when required.
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So there’s plenty to address before their crucial clash against another batting-heavy side, Gujarat Lions, and they will have to bring their A-game to the table.
RCB will have to find their best combination soon and back their players to come good, for you can’t tinker with your combinations too much when you need seven wins in nine games.