Being honest about RCB's chances this IPL - No miracles expected
Can Virat Kohli-led RCB finally go the distance?
With the first leg of T20 overkill done and dusted in Bangladesh, the second one, internationally acclaimed domestic T20 cricket aka the IPL is all set to begin in UAE. So here comes the multizillion dollar question:
“What should one expect from the Royal Challengers of Bangalore this time around?”
A few frowns, a few sighs and more than a few outrages with my inner club cricket goddess self later I can tell you, well let’s not expect a lot. For the impatient, qualifying for the play-offs looks like quite a big ask. Before I jump to my predictions, let’s have a look at the cutlery we have been offered by Dr. Mallya, with love.
Oh Yuvi, oh..
Is it too soon to address ourselves as disgruntled fans? Because I’m pretty clueless about our marquee signing. Even more so, after four very painful hours of twenty-twenty cricket contested between India and Sri Lanka at the World T20 finals. Even more, more so after seeing our-supposed-to-be-the-trump-card-of-the-season eating twenty one balls, Virat Kohli’s patience and the cup. Even more, more, more so after visualizing him having a tournament like that for RCB in my mental HD.
I nearly got a coronary but let’s just stop there.
Who is Yuvraj Singh to us? Inside each of us, we have a special place for him. The man who won us two World Cups and countless matches. The man who showed us what a comeback means. The man who gave us memories, the man who inspired a generation.
But the fairytale ends here. A fairytale on general notions, and not certainly on cricketing ones. Or rather not acceptable on cricketing terms. He has forgotten consistency which was once his element in contributing to the team when he was most needed – 352 runs, 15 wickets, Man of the tournament in WC 2011 and a couple of unbelievable knocks, 148 runs, a wicket in T20 WC 2007.
However, things for him have been pretty quiet or rather poor for a considerably long time now. A below par ODI run or his ever terrible IPL run doesn’t bode well with our expectations. Well, what’s next? Forget the terrible 21-ball 11 against Sri Lanka in the final. I am sure you would have forgotten the nervy chase against WI in the group stages. Now let’s hope he continues his decent, if not good, run in T20Is scoring 401 runs at an average of 30.84 in 17 matches. When everyone wrote him off, he staged an unthinkable comeback. Comebacks are always alluring but to make it happen again and again makes it even more sweet. We haven’t seen your last. We want to believe.
We believe in you. Your cricket. Your abilities.
Let’s have some drumrolls. Can we say, Come on Yuvi!
It’s not all gloomy. It’s partially the best fireworks you could buy in the Diwali market.
#TEAMBEASTMODE
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers – the best in business
There is nothing much to say about Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, is there? These two are exceptional players, both of them likely the greatest players of this generation. Their grace and their exploits are so outrageous that it seems like other teams will ask authorities to drop them for level playing field. The joke is, it is not even an over exaggeration here.
We also have a Superman who re-invented himself since the 3rd season of IPL, and who has been providing us power hitting since then. The Superman or rather WHAT-HE-EATS-MAN we are talking about is from Jamaica and is called Christopher Henry Gayle – the only one to have scored 11 T20 centuries and also holds the record of scoring maximum number of sixes in the same format. Having scored over 600 runs in the last three seasons – being the only man to do so in the history of IPL, we can put our expectations on the big man to do for the fourth straight season.
Bowling, I don’t even..
RCB, popularly Royal Chokers, are suitable for the tag – ‘South Africa of IPL’. While the choking part holds up, the thing is RCB never had a great team, unlike South Africa. They would probably top the ‘swag’ table with the likes of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, but that isn’t everything with rest of the team reduced to mere fillers in the team sheet more often than not.
Always top heavy-with the above three scoring nearly 70% of team runs last season, they never had a bowler capable of running through the batting line-up let alone a bowling attack. The sad story here is team management doing little to mend the glorious errors of predecessors ending up increasing the weight of already heavy top order.