IPL 2018: 5 reasons for RCB's dismal performances this season

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Royal Challengers Bangalore, the perennial underachievers, have done it again. Last night’s defeat at the hands of the Sunrisers Hyderabad has put them in a position they are all too familiar with. Needing to win all of their remaining matches even before last night’s defeat, RCB find themselves in IPL Purgatory, and even with wins in their remaining 4 games, will be dependent on other teams to see if they can make it to the playoffs.

So what went wrong for a squad touted by many to be the favourite for the 2018 title? Here is a look at 5 reasons for RCB’s dismal performance in IPL 2018:

#1 Struggling to find the right combination

A feature of RCB this season has been the constant chopping and changing to their starting XI in a bid to hit the right combination. Early season bowling woes meant that RCB could never settle upon the right combination of five bowlers while a brittle middle order and lack of explosiveness at the top meant that the batting order too was in a constant state of flux.

Players never seemed to have well-defined roles and the constant changing meant no player was given an opportunity to play their way out of poor form. For an incoming player too, it is incredibly difficult to perform right from the get-go and the lack of confidence showed in their performances in crunch time.

Squad rotation is never a bad idea, and one can understand why RCB made changes as they searched for answers, but when you are struggling to win, often a little consistency is what helps bring the team together. RCB were never able to find the consistency they needed to string together a row of wins and it cost them in this tournament.

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