CHENNAI: Lost in the noise of Virat Kohli's century against Rajasthan Royals was a little-known record-extending losing run. That night in Jaipur, the franchise had lost a hat-trick of fixtures within the first five matches of a new campaign nine times (Mumbai Indians are the next worst on six).
You needn't necessarily be out if you suffer three consecutive losses in the opening phase but the best teams tend to start well. Sure, Mumbai recovered in 2015 to win the title after losing the first four and five of the opening six games. But these things don't happen by chance. Despite the relative randomness of the format, title-winning teams have seldom had to play catch-up from the early stages.
Here's a number that encapsulates Bengaluru's issues. Over the last six full seasons going back to 2018, they had, on average, lost 6.83 games in the group phase per season. In that same six-year period, the champions, on average, averaged two fewer losses in the group phase. It was almost the same in the first 10 years of the league. From 2008 to 2017, the champions, on average, lost 5.3 games. Bengaluru? 7.1.
The leadership may have changed. Head coaches and support staff may have changed. The ownership may have changed. Players may have changed.
Rahul Dravid last played for the side in September 2010. His last match for them came against Chennai Super Kings in the now-defunct Champions League. What's remarkable though is that the former India captain remains the second-leading Indian run-scorer with 1132 (Virat Kohli is the clear leader). KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Robin Uthappa, Saurabh Tiwary, Shivam Dube, Yuvraj Singh, Manish Pandey... they have all played for the franchise during or after Dravid but were either let go or they couldn't show their true abilities.
Why is this a problem? Among the eight founding members, Bengaluru is the only team with a solitary Indian representation in the 1000-run club (Kohli) in the league's history (some of Dravid's runs had come in the CL). The other seven have at least three.
But it's not like they didn't push the boat out for Indian middle-order players. At some level, the story of Tiwary has played itself out multiple times. The hard-hitting southpaw was a big-money signing from Mumbai before the 2011 season following a decent year for the runners-up (419 runs at 135.99). His numbers nosedived the year he left for Garden City (he struck at 104 across 40 IPL matches in the three years there).
History is a good starting point. While you want to be careful about statistics as they can sometimes be deceiving, you can't argue against cold, hard numbers. The second leading Indian spin wicket-taker continues to be Anil Kumble with 53 and he last played for them in 2010.
Unboxing, according to the Cambridge dictionary, is 'the activity of taking new products out of their packaging, especially on videos on the internet'. These videos can sometimes grab millions of eyeballs because potential consumers are curious about the product that's being unboxed.
Just before the start of the IPL season, Bengaluru had an unboxing event in front of scores of fans at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. There, they revealed a name change apart from the official jersey. In recent seasons, the franchise has even used the 'unbox event' to unveil a new skipper (Faf du Plessis in 2022, for example).
For all their creativity off the field, on the field, they don't have to unveil anything new. Seventeen years after the inaugural season, the same old flaws have continued to bite them. A top-heavy batting line-up, not knowing the best position of some of the batters, chopping and changing, a bowling line-up ill-suited to the demands of bowling at home and questionable auction strategies have continued to hamper them. Of course, this can not be on the new regime of Mo Bobat (director of cricket) and Andy Flower (head coach). They have been there for less than 10 seconds.
In sport, there's a widely popular term known as marginal gains. The theory posits that small increments in all departments make a team better than the sum of their parts over time. This franchise may be close to the other end of the spectrum. Marginal losses.
A small illustration to drive this point. It's no surprise that a team that had AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli owns the record for being the most aggressive IPL side at home. In terms of runs per over, nobody even comes close to their average of 8.84 per over in the league's history (among the OG 8).
In simple terms, that's an average of 177 every match. But they have never capitalised on this advantage because their bowling attack has lacked the nous of bowling in that postage stamp-sized ground. If they had a finisher to bring it home, they could have pushed 8.84 beyond 9. They have always had to ooh and aah their way for Indian spinners. Post Mitchell Starc, they have lacked that gun powerplay and death operator in the pace unit.
Sankar Rajgopal, who used to work as an R&D Consultant and Analyst at Punjab Kings, explains. "RCB clearly is a successful franchise," he tells this daily. "How we define success may be different from how they define their success, I don't know. They are popular from a social media point of view, they are making good profits and they are doing everything that a franchise is supposed to do as a business owner.
"But, from a team point of view, what would you need? You need a team that is fit enough to play well at home, that's what teams look at. Can a team win five out of seven games at home? For that to happen in a small ground on good batting tracks, there are certain things you need to know. RCB has always had Gayle, Kohli, AB de types of players. Now it's Faf (Du Plessis) and (Glenn) Maxwell. They have copy pasted that same formula (but) it needs to change. The experience may need to come in the finishing department and, you know, maybe younger good Indian players can take the powerplay. I'm just looking at the template that's been followed, it's been the same throughout where the bowling has sort of suffered. It's been the same this year as well," Rajgopal, Viacom18's Creative Director these days, adds.