New look Royal Challengers Bangalore; same old problems

The temperature was nearing 40 degrees in Rajkot. Virat Kohli, as he had done for the most part of the ninth edition of the IPL, was wielding his bat for his team the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Of course, it wasn’t something new. The 27-year old was the prodigal son of the Indian soil. Of course, he didn’t receive the Godlike status Sachin Tendulkar and of course he didn’t begin his career as a 16-year old. Yet, the thousands gathered in the vast expanse of the Saurashtra Cricket Association chanted “Kohli, Kohli”. He isn’t a Sachin Tendulkar. He is your everyday superstar, someone you can relate to.

The crowds that turn up for cricketing events in Bengaluru are special. Period. And for them, Virat Kohli has been literally someone who has been accepted into their fold. Having been the only player to have been retained over the years, Kohli has become a household name of the RCB faithful.

The batting unit of the Royal Challengers Bangalore has been something of a fairy tale because it is only in fairy tales that you have Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson and Virat Kohli in the same side. What’s more is that the addition of Shane Watson has gone on to solidify the batting unit to such an extent that there is little or absolutely no chance of failure. As has been reinforced by pundits and others, it is a near perfect construction.

As far as the Challengers were concerned, Kohli was simply unstoppable on the night. In the 17th over, Kohli was on 69 and at the end of the 20th he had scaled the century summit. Quite remarkable. His reaction at the end of the innings, the celebrations from Kohli was simply surreal. In a nutshell, it made him seem somewhat humanlike.

However, one will certainly feel for Virat Kohli in light of the events that followed. While Dwayne Smith slammed the bowlers for plenty, Brendon McCullum plundered 25 runs of the Kane Richardson over. Kohli’s head was in his hands. He was gutted and it was evident. The orange cap handed to him by Lisa Shtalekar for his 367 runs was thrown on the ground time and again. How could you blame him? The very match that he had setup was crumbling before his very eyes.

Apart from Tabriz Shamsi, the bowlers failed to make any sort of impact on proceedings. However, while that statement remains to be the smaller picture, the big picture is that the Royal Challengers have failed to construct a settled and fearsome bowling attack.

If a consensus is done on the best bowling attacks in the IPL, the now defunct Chennai Super Kings, the Mumbai Indians, and the Kolkata Knight Riders rank extremely high on these charts. The Mumbai Indians built their attack around Lasith Malinga. The latter was at his peak his career during the inaugural season of the IPL. At the moment, the Mumbai Indians attack, despite playing without Lasith Malinga is a supremely formidable unit.

The Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand, have made a smart approach to proceedings. If there are quality spinners in the league, they more often than not, land up in the sweats of the Knight Riders. Ajantha Mendis and Sunil Narine are just the tip of the iceberg. Piyush Chawla and the now discarded KC Cariappa were also associated with the Knight Riders. An astonishing similarity can be made between the Knight Riders and the Chennai Super Kings. The latter, however, combined both and built their bowling attack around Ravichandran Ashwin.

However, while all of that sounds very impressive, the Royal Challengers have failed to do that in almost all their seasons in the IPL thus far. From the likes of Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan to Nathan Bracken, Anil Kumble, and even Dillon du Preez, the Challengers almost never have had a bowling attack that has struck fear into the batsmen. Better yet, the Royal Challengers have appointed two of the best bowling mentors in the world – Allan Donald and Bharat Arun.

Mitchell Starc, part of the current regime and perhaps even Ravi Rampaul have come close on separate occasions in the past to cause a serious threat to the opposition batsmen. In the context of the current IPL, the batting of the Royal Challengers reads names like AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli, while the bowling attack boasts of perhaps just Adam Milne and maybe even Kane Richardson. The Varun Aaron experiment too hasn’t worked. Tabraiz Shamsi at the moment seems to be the best bowler in the RCB ranks at the moment.

Although a case can be made that the Royal Challengers Bangalore are missing the likes of Mitchell Starc and Samuel Badree, no excuse can be given regarding the form of certain bowlers in the IPL. The problem is crystal clear and clear as day, it is only the diagnosis that is and has been pending for almost 8 years.