RCB team structure gets massive praise from pundits with collective match-winners, team depth, and steady contributions.
Aaron, Moody laud RCB team structure after they canter their way to the IPL Finals.
When an eighth Player-of-the-Match, Suyash Sharma, guaranteed Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) place in the IPL 2025 final on Thursday night, their behind-the-scenes efforts to shed their reputation as a team that depends on “superstars” came off.
They have discovered match-winning players in almost every position of the starting lineup. Both experienced professionals and recent hires have contributed at various times, assisting RCB in finding solutions at every turn. On ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out, Varun Aaron went into greater detail.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to attribute it to eight players being man of the match throughout the season,” Aaron summed it up. “Because RCB have always been dominated by a few players, a few big batters, I would say, did a bulk of the lifting. But there was always talks about, after Virat Kohli, who’s the highest [Indian] run-scorer? Till last year, it was Rahul Dravid. This year, that has changed.
“Phil Salt has come in, he’s played a really big hand. Devdutt Padikkal was instrumental in the first half. Now, you’ve got somebody like Jitesh Sharma standing up. Rajat Patidar is looking good, even from last game, though he didn’t get too many runs.
“So, there are signs, and then Tim David comes in, plays brilliantly. Romario Shepherd, what an innings. So if you actually think about it, so many moments from RCB straightaway comes to mind that, you know what, everybody’s chipped in at different times, when they were down and out.
“Obviously, Josh Hazlewood, huge addition. Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] again today, brilliant. Krunal Pandya and Suyash, again, before the season, we were talking about their spin. You know what, RCB doesn’t have the best spin attack, but their spinners have stood up better than anybody else.”