File photo of Yuzvendra Chahal© BCCI
It has been a horrible IPL 2024 campaign for Royal Challengers Bengaluru as the Faf Du Plessis slumped to a narrow one-run loss against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. It was the seventh loss for RCB in eight matches and they are currently at the bottom of the points table. The franchise, which enjoys an extremely loyal fanbase, has always boasted of big-name players but have failed to win the competition even once. Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa advised RCB to bring back some of the match-winners that they let go over the years beginning with star spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
“First, I would go and beg Yuzvendra Chahal to come back. I would do anything; go through hell and high water to bring Yuzi back from RR, make amends. I would maybe even go and bring Harshal Patel back and prepare wickets that are conducive for bowlers there to succeed. Look at the calibre of batters they have – Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik – but bowlers? They’ve had such great batters. AB de Villiers played for them; Chris Gayle played for them. Travis Head played for them. Shane Watson,” Uthappa said on The Ranveer Show Podcast.
Chahal is currently the most successful bowler in the history of the IPL but RCB did not retain him after the 2021 season and he ended up joining Rajasthan Royals.
Chahal was not the only star players that left RCB and succeeded with another franchise as players like Shivam Dube and Devdutt Padikkal have also shown great promise. Uthappa said that RCB need to break this pattern and make sure that the team need to hold on to their big players.
“Now let’s look at domestic players. Manish Panday, myself, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal… they’ve let them all go. Rahul Dravid is the highest scorer for them after Virat Kohli. Crazy right? It tells you a story. If you move from that narrative and say that Virat Kohli, irrespective of wickets and conditions, knows how to score runs. He will score runs. In KKR, when they won in 2012, 2014, 170 was a winning total. You have to make it harder to score runs. RCB can’t do it. Invest a lot more in bowling and middle order. And sustain them. Exercise the faith. Look at the number of players that have played for RCB this IPL alone. Almost 25,” added Uthappa.
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