RCB coach Daniel Vettori calls for the team's batsmen to be proactive

For a side that boasts of batting heavyweights, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have clearly been unable to score runs as per expectations. A string of low totals in four consecutive matches calls for a serious analysis to overcome their batting woes.

The Bengaluru crowd, who are used to a staple diet of 200+ scores, have witnessed the highest score of just 157 so far. Of course, the pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium doesn’t behave as politely with the batsmen as it did last year. However, the tiny boundaries which batsmen usually enjoy, haven’t been exploited by the home team whatsoever this season.

The RCB batsmen are clearly finding it hard to keep the scoreboard ticking. More often than not, dot balls have eaten into their quota of 20 overs, only to leave the Royal Challengers with a moderate total on the board.

RCB head coach Daniel Vettori felt that despite not having played on this surface before, batsmen needed to put more pressure on the opposition bowlers.

“It’s probably a case of dealing with a kind of wicket that we haven’t played on before. It’s obviously slightly slower. We are used to wickets that makes it a lot easier for batsmen to hit the ball for six, hit the ball for four to catch up with a few dot balls. Probably creating pressure on ourselves through dot balls, striking at below 100,” Vettori was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz.

“Trying to catch that up in the back end on a slow wicket is incredibly difficult. I think in a lot of ways we need to be more proactive. We need to put more pressure obviously through more boundaries but also by rotating the strike,” he added.

Although Vettori admitted that it wasn’t a batting-friendly one,  he did not criticize the pitch. He mentioned that the new Bengaluru wicket will bring the bowlers into play.

“I think so (The pitch is not as batting-friendly), but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good T20 wicket. It’s been exciting for the bowlers. All three games have been pretty entertaining and I think we have showed that we can compete on this wicket. It is different, we just need to adapt like we did in the Delhi game,” he said.

Lack of form has been a negative highlight in the RCB setup so far in this season. The likes of Chris Gayle and Shane Watson haven’t lived up to their tags of big-hitters.

“The thing is in the IPL we’re constantly searching for the right balance. In the Mumbai game, we were down by a bowler. Shane (Watson) has been such a successful allrounder in T20 cricket for a long period of time. So we made the decision to back Shane because of his all-round contribution,” the former New Zealand all-rounder shared.

“It’s tough for everyone in T20 cricket. We know Chris is a very good performer and we know if he can get on a roll then we can utilise Chris in a positive manner. At this stage we are just trying to find the right balance,” he said.

Mandeep Singh, who’s been handed the responsibility of filling the big shoes of KL Rahul, has failed to find some rhythm. Save a few glimpses of quality, the domestic contingent in RCB hasn’t supported the big guns Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Daniel Vettori, however, said these are all part and parcel of the demanding format that is T20 cricket.

“We saw how well the likes of KL (Rahul), Sachin Baby, all those role players from last year performed. The expectation is on AB and Virat to excel, but we need the likes of Mandeep, Kedhar (Jadhav), Shane and Stuart Binny to complement their performances. We haven’t made it easy on Mandeep by chopping and changing up the order. We are trying to find the right combination. Once we find the right combination we can get on a roll. Let’s hope for that in the next few games,” he concluded.

Finding themselves at the bottom of the table, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to turn things around as their travel to the Lions’ den to clash against Suresh Raina’s Gujarat Lions.