Virat Kohli (left) and Faf du Plessis (BCCI Photo)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru have never won IPL despite boasting of some of the biggest names in the world of cricket right from the first season in 2008.
With one win from six attempts, Royal Challengers Bengaluru find themselves languishing at the bottom of the IPL 2024 points table which has again given rise to questions why they have been perennial underachievers despite having unfailingly assembled a team of superstars nearly every season.
In 16 seasons before, RCB have made the IPL final thrice but never been able to win the title. The last time that they made it to the summit clash was in 2016, the same season when Virat Kohli scored 973 runs from 16 games but even it proved insufficient to end their title drought.
For the ongoing season, RCB have the likes of Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Dinesh Karthik, Cameron Green among others in their line-up but six games into the campaign, they have already suffered five defeats.
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Former England captain Michael Vaughan feels that RCB’s failure has proven to him that individual stars cannot win you trophies unless you get the team culture right.
“What I like about the fact the RCB have never won is it proves to me that team sport is not just about individuals,” Vaughan said on The Ranveer Show on YouTube. “You can go and buy all the biggest individual names and put them into a team but it doesn’t mean you’re going to win and it’s been proven at the RCB.”
“They’ve they’ve signed some incredible players – AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Faf – unbelievable players. But it tells you unless you get the whole team operating and every single play knowing the roles and identifying different roles for different people and it might be that you have to rejig your team slightly just to allow someone else to flourish in a different position I don’t see the RCB s doing that,” he added.
Vaughan feels that RCB are rigid in their ways and he backed his argument by pointing out how teams have been able to prevent Kohli from scoring in the Powerplay by slotting in a left-arm spinner when he has opened.
“I think pretty much every opposition when Virat goes out to open they open the bowling with left arm spin. I get that. Because with Virat you put two fields on the onside boundary you might get away with a couple of singles before you know you’ve had one over and three or four (runs) off it – perfect start for the fielding side. I wonder if the RCB see it – ‘Well okay they’re going to open with a left arm spinner we need to open with a left hander and Virat got one off the first but then you’ve got a left hander facing the left arm spin he launches it into the standard couple of time. Then you get to 13 or 15 off the first over,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan reckons that unless RCB can identify each individual player’s role perfectly, they cannot win IPL.
“I don’t see them trying anything different. I just see them thinking that – it’s probably wrong but again it’s perception – they just seem to think because they’ve got great players in this team, the management thinks well we’re going to win. It proves to me that even though you’ve got great players unless you get the team ethic, culture and you absolutely identify everyone’s roles perfectly, you’re not going to win trophies,” he said.