IPL 2017: 5 areas RCB need to improve if they are to make the playoffs
The Bangalore rain on Tuesday washed away RCB’s match against Sunrisers Hyderabad and dented their chances of qualifying for the play-offs. With only two wins in eight matches, the runners up of IPL 2016 have slipped to sixth position on the points table.
From here on Bangalore has to win almost every match they play in order to keep their hopes of reaching the playoffs intact. This is a monumental task but RCB boasts a strong squad featuring some top quality T20 players.
Hence, they can still make it if they improve their performance drastically. Here are the five areas where the team must work on if they wish to qualify for the playoffs.
#1 Opening pair
The top order often scores the most runs in T20. All orange cap winners so far in IPL have batted as openers. Even this year, Hashim Amla is the current bearer of the orange cap and six players from the top ten run scorers in IPL 2017 are openers.
However for RCB, after eight games in this season, they are still to get their best opening pair right. They have used five pairs in seven innings and ideally, they would prefer Gayle and Kohli at the top. But Gayle has looked off-colour this year and has been the main culprit in RCB’s powerless performance in the powerplays. Among all teams, only RCB (6.78) has a run rate below seven in the first six overs - indicative of their poor show so far.
A major worry for Kohli and team management is to find consistency at the top. Kohli will most probably bat as an opener and it looks like RCB may drop the under firing Gayle to accommodate Watson or Travis Head as an opener. Among Indian players, Mandeep Singh and Vishnu Vinod are decent options. But RCB needs their openers to fire ASAP or else they would soon be entertaining the prospect of playing their last few games without any meaning.