How do you solve a mystery called Royal Challengers Bangalore? This is one of the most followed teams in the IPL. After all, they represent Bangalore, the so-called Silicon Valley of India, a city of 13 million people. And they have Virat Kohli.
In fact, RCB have had Kohli since the very start of the IPL, about 12 years ago. But it is telling that despite that, and despite having AB De Villiers and Chris Gayle for many, many years, RCB have never won the IPL.
This time, RCB have been even worse than usual, losing 4 matches on a trot. They face KKR today who are a far more disciplined team, and one with real hunger. Could KKR make it 5 defeats in a row for RCB? It does look like it.
But really, we still don’t get what’s wrong with RCB. What did they get wrong? Was sticking with Shane Watson a mistake? Or was it depending too much on ABD and Virat and ignoring the rest of the batting line-up?
Remember, KL Rahul used to play for RCB before he was sold to Kings XI Punjab. He could have been the support that Kohli and ABD wanted, but that was not to be. Instead of Rahul, RCB have the likes of Parthiv Patel playing in the crucial opening slot – whose best days were more than a decade ago.
They have relied too much on mediocre players such as Shimron Hetmyer, who cannot play spin and has already succumbed on three occasions to the ball turning away. This makes him a non starter against the Kolkata Knight Riders who have 3 high quality spin bowlers.
Knight Riders are doing very well. Nitish Rana has looked solid at the top and has already won two Man-of-the-Match awards. Andre Russell has never been better. Robin Uthappa is his usual consistent self, and Kuldeep Yadav is in form as well. Sunil Narine is yet to hit top form, and when he does that, KKR will look truly imposing to any opposition.
The Teams
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Marcus Stoinis, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Akshdeep Nath, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Navdeep Saini, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Shubman Gill, 6 Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), 7 Andre Russell, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Prasidh Krishna
Prediction: Easy win for KKR. 5 losses in a row for RCB.
