Bangalore Royal Challengers are sitting pretty at the bottom of the table. They have not stood up to T20 requirements. When their bowlers do well, batsmen fail miserably and when their bowlers don’t do well even then their batsmen fail miserably. So its like batsmen not doing their homework properly.
Look at the Rajasthan Royals, they were the underdogs when they entered the championship with $67 million franchise but now its the first team to go into the semifinals of the IPL Championship. Did they have any great players? They do have players who are suited for the type of game. Analyzing the Rajasthan Royals one can find hard hitting batsmen Graeme Smith, Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan to name a few and their bowling department has the likes of Shane Warne, Sohail Tanvir, Munaf Patel. They have been working as a team. With each payer consistently making up for the poor performance put up by the others. They keep blaming individuals for not doing well. When a team performs badly, the team as a whole has to take the blame. It can’t be said that we lost because of so and so player or if so and so player would have fielded well we would have won. All these statements are just to bail oneself out of the criticism. The recent match between Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal Challengers shows how well the former team is playing as an unit and how poorly the latter is performing as a team. The recent deadly blasts at Jaipur did not dampen the spirits of the team instead they gave the people of Jaipur a reason to rejoice, a reason for the people to smile about. Hats off to the team Rajasthan Royals. They have been an inspiring team. Shane Watson has been the man to watch out for. His heroics with bat and ball has made him the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. Its Shane Warne who has been a clever captain and an able coach. He is the only Non Indian captain and has been leading his side from the front, and has been a role model for the youngsters in his team. So there are loads of things one has to learn from Rajasthan Royals.
Now why did i give a brief write up on Rajasthan Royals? Its because i wanted to write about another “Royal” who have been, well trying to notch up most number f loses. Yeah i am talking about Bangalore Royal Challengers. I keep expecting B’lore RCs to do well every time they go out into the field. But they disappointed me each time i expect them to perform well. I may not be watching the match live or at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, but i do keep refreshing the scorecard on cricinfo.com after every second. ITs because i want them to do well, i want them to silence the critics, but they aren’t. What ails B’lore RC? Is it Bowling? Batting? Coach? Management? Anaylsing the batting- Misbah who was the find of the ICC T20 world cup is going thru a lean patch. Virt Kohli, Indian U19 captain, has not been firing considering his age and the josh which he can have. J Arunkumar is not consistently performing. Kallis and Dravid considered to be the most technical batsment in the world are finding it tough to get used to the T20 format even though Dravid was seen putting up some good scores. A batsmen who plays well in T20 cannot be regarded as the batsmen with great technique. Its like who ever has aggression and can hit hard and cleanly does well in the shorter version of the game. And Boucher has been playing but he is a great person to be behind the wickets. And the rest of the players have ever performed with the bat. And as far as bowling is concerned Zaheer Khan has been doing well, Anil Kumble may not be liking the format of the game, Praveen Kumar, Kallis and others have not been picking wickets.
So one can conclude that changing the CEO or the coach or any other person will not affect the way the players play. They are not performing as a team. Its like each player is coming out in the middle with an intention that he alone has to score all the runs and theres no one else to do it or he alone has to take all the wickets. With only 4 games left B’lore RC’s chances of a place in the semi final are very very lean, i suppose its not possible. But they still have time to get in form and do well at the next edition. If they can put up a team performance and win all their remaining games it will be like a moral booster for the team.
I suppose Misbah, Kallis, Virat, Dravid, Boucher, ArunKumar have to get down to what they were called for and do their howe work well. All these batsmen have in them to do well but what’s their problem no one has ever thought of. I suppose the coach has to speak to them. Someone like Shah Rukh Khan of Chak De India fame, someone who can put in the fire back in to the side, someone who can get B’lore RC back to wining ways… Is there someone out there!!!!!