Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) finished their 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) season as the bottom-placed side in the points table. They went on a winless run for six games at the start of the tournament. RCB tried their best to pull things back, recording 5 wins in their last 8 matches but still failed to make it to the IPL playoffs for the third year in a row. Despite having two of the best batsmen in world cricket (Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers), RCB have continuously failed to deliver in the IPL.
Virat Kohli’s captaincy was criticised, the bowling was blamed for being lackluster while batting also came under the scanner for its overdependence on two batsmen. All in all, everything that could go wrong for RCB went wrong this season. However, former RCB captain Anil Kumble believes the team failed to perform this year because of poor selections made by the team management.
“Selections made by RCB didn’t go their way. They picked only 3 foreign players in their playing XI. The batting was heavily dependent on AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. However, when the duo failed, the remaining batting couldn’t just perform. Add to that the bowling woes for the franchise, as their senior bowler Umesh Yadav was highly inconsistent,” Kumble said in a video for CricketNext.
“Yuzvendra Chahal was at his best. But losing Moeen Ali and Marcus Stoinis was bad for the team just when they were gaining steam. Dale Steyn came in for two games and impressed lot, but his injury was unfortunate.”
“Navdeep Saini has got pace, character, and temperament of bowling in T20 game. Shimron Hetmyer in the last game was exciting and along with Gurkeerat must form their middle order in the coming season. Parthiv Patel was brilliant at the top and this time he just didn’t play quickfire cameos but played crucial innings,” Kumble concluded.
