Why has RCB failed to win an IPL title despite 16 years with Virat Kohli? An analysis

Despite being one of the strongest teams on paper since the inception of the IPL in 2008, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have failed to win a single IPL title.

RCB conceded over 200 thrice this season in their own backyard and lost all those games. They managed to put up 197 in the final league game against GT but failed to defend that as well.

Losing 4 of the 7 home games dented their chances of making it to the playoffs big time.

Interestingly, when it comes to most runs in a league stage by a batter in the IPL, whose team failed to make it to the playoffs, RCB dominates the list.

But why have the men from Bengaluru failed to put up a 'Royal Challenge' despite a star-studded line-up?

HOME CONDITIONS

With boundaries ranging from 50-55 metres sideways and around 60-65 metres in the front and back, the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru has been a batting paradise. The ground is known to produce huge scores, which makes the bowling line-up look even mediocre.

In fact, the Chinnaswamy stadium has seen most hundreds by a player at a particular ground in the cash-rich league. Kohli has smashed 4 tons here. Interestingly, it also takes the second spot with Gayle smashing 3 hundreds at this ground.

POOR BOWLING

Despite investing heavily in batters over the years, the RCB management failed to get quality bowlers into the squad. One guy who figured out not just how to bowl well but also pick up wickets at their home ground was Yuzvendra Chahal but they let go of him as well.

Bangalore managed to transform Mohammed Siraj into a quality pacer but no support from the other end didn't help his cause.
Josh Hazlewood was labelled as a threat but he too struggled with injury and played just 3 games in IPL 2023.

OVER DEPENDENT ON VIRAT KOHLI

RCB has always been over-dependent on 3 batters to score the bulk of their runs. May it be the trio of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in the years gone by or Virat, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell this year, it's been the same old story.

The common guy among both groups has been Virat Kohli, who was burdened with not just the captaincy responsibility but also having to bail RCB out of trouble with the bat.

While teams like KKR, CSK, MI, DC, and others have multiple Indian batters scoring over 1000 runs over the years for them, RCB has just one guy achieving that feat, and that is Virat Kohli.

Clearly, Kohil alone can't carry the burden of the entire franchise on his shoulders and the RCB management needs to figure out a good auction strategy in order to win their first-ever IPL title.