Royal Challengers Bangalore season review 2019
A rather torrid season came to a closure for Royal Challengers Bangalore where they finished bottom of the table yet again. They produced some stellar performances in the latter half of the season but six consecutive losses at the beginning made sure for Virat Kohli and co. that the season was over even before it began.
RCB's horrendous start
RCB started off rather poorly when they lost six matches one after the other. Owing to these losses the team looked lost and demotivated and the urge to fight seemed to have left them. Batsmen getting out to poor shot selection, predictable death bowling and patchy fielding led the team to a total disarray. Their over-dependence on Kohli and de Villiers was evident and this was something which was feared before the start of the IPL. None of the players seemed to raise their hand and take the pressure from both of them and it was something which was too much to handle for both the star players.
Lack of collective effort
At times it was observed that the team never seemed to be fighting for a common goal. If we keep aside a few of the strong individual performances, the rest of the team seemed to be lost at occasions when they needed to come together and fight as a group. It would be wrong if the entire blame is put on Kohli, although he too lacked the edge this season going by his batting performances and some rather uncanny decisions on the field. It could be said that too many changes to the playing XI could have been a reason of demotivation for the players. Many Indian players too struggled to find any rhythm when the big names were misfiring.
Players who performed
Opening the batting with Parthiv Patel was the best decision that the team management took. Having the license to bat freely at the start of the innings worked well for Parthiv and for the franchise. The charismatic left-hander hit 373 runs and more than once played those impactful cameos at the start of the innings. In fact Kohli, de Villiers and Parthiv scored nearly 65 percent of the team's runs.
Both the international all-rounders Marcus Stoinis and Moeen Ali had a pretty decent season in terms of runs scored and wickets taken. Both of them brought their vast experience and provided balance to the team. Moeen specifically found his touch with the bat in the later part of the tournament where he played some match winning cameos.
As far as bowling was concerned, Yuzvendra Chahal was at his usual wicket-taking self. Fast bowler Navdeep Saini announced himself on the international stage with some excellent spells of fast bowling. Saini took 11 wickets this season at an economy of 8.27. He bowled some tough overs throughout the tournament and upstaged some good quality batsmen.
Players who underperformed
Most of the top teams had identified their top players and backed them till the end of the group stage regardless of their performance. Meanwhile, in RCB constant chopping and changing the playing XI didn't help the team's stability. Kohli and the team management made countless tactical errors when it came to team selection which probably was their biggest flaw and reflected in their performances throughout the season. They bought Shivam Dube with a hefty amount but he bowled only 10 deliveries and played only in four games.
Bangalore's leading wicket-taker last season, Umesh Yadav failed to replicate the same performance this year. He picked a meagre eight wickets in 11 games and leaked runs at an economy of 9.80. He wasn't impactful neither in the powerplay nor at the death overs. Against Chennai Super Kings he almost failed to defend 26 runs of the last over against MS Dhoni. He looked completely out of sync yet RCB persisted with him rather than playing Washington Sundar or Kulwant Khejroliya. The most curious selection was of Akshdeep Nath who got a long run of games whereas experienced Gurkeerat Singh had to sit in the dugout and only got to feature in three matches. Gurkeerat in that limited opportunity ended up playing a match-defining knock in the last group game.
Things to improve
RCB's planning has to improve a lot. Proper strategies - be it batting, bowling or fielding needs to be sorted out and every player has to be aware of his role in the team. They need to utilise Washington Sundar a lot better and recruit a better quality left arm spinner than Pawan Negi. Also they need to groom the Indian talents like Saini, Siraj and Khejroliya properly so as to ensure that they could be banked upon in testing times. Coach Gary Kirsten summed up their plan looking forward in an interview where he said,
“We’ve struggled in certain areas that we thought we would be okay in, so for next year we’re going to have make sure we build some strength in those specific areas.
"There are some structural changes that need to be made that have maybe been around for quite a long time. This is my first year as the head coach, so I’ve got a better understanding of what those are. We’ll certainly discuss with our owners and look into that for next year.”
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