BENGALURU: After 13 seasons, Royal Challengers Bangalore are still searching for their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title. After winning seven in the first 10 matches, Bangalore suffered five defeats in as many matches including the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad. At the top, youngster Devdutt Padikkal shone the brightest by scoring 473 runs in his debut year. However, there was hardly any support from other batsmen. It was one of the main reasons for their inconsistent performance.
Shivam Dube managed 129 in nine innings, Washington Sundar scored 111 in nine games, Gurkeerat Singh hit 71 in five matches. The foreign imports — Chris Morris hit 34 in 5 innings and Moeen Ali made 12 in three matches — did not contribute much either. “Yes, it is important for the batting unit (to fire in unison)” said head coach Simon Katich in virtual interaction. “In T20, batting has to be adaptable and flexible. It is the nature of the game, where the situation dictates how you have to play. There are no actual set positions in T20.
Lot of times, it comes up as to how you go against a certain match-up and make it hard for the opposition captain.” New signings including Aaron Finch and Josh Philippe did not impress too. The Australian captain managed 268 in 12 matches at a strike rate of 111 whereas wicketkeeper Philippe scored 78 runs in five matches. That apart, Bangalore also toiled to find boundaries in the middle overs. Even Kohli also struggled to some extent as his overall strike rate of 121 suggest.
Not at his usual best, Kohli hit only 23 fours this season — he ranks 27th in the list of batsmen with most number of boundaries. However, Katich defended his approach. “We had consistent opening partnerships this season.....As a by-product of that, Virat (at number three) came into the innings outside the powerplay on a number of occasions, which is never an easy time to start your innings, particularly in the UAE, where conditions were slower,” said Katich.
However, there were some positives as well. If Padikkal was the pick of the season, Washington, Mohammed Siraj, Morris and Navdeep Saini impressed with the ball. “The core group is good, but we need a little bit of tweaking. No doubt about that. We have talked about the middle-order. That cannot be fixed by just the overseas players, we have to look at how we might do that rather than necessarily stack one part of the game. It is a balancing act,” said the team director Mike Hesson.