IPL: 5 reasons why RCB failed to make the playoffs

With a crushing defeat at the hands of the Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore's IPL 2018 campaign officially came to a close.

It was yet another season that promised so much but delivered so little, with horrific performances overshadowing the few sparks they produced in between.

Virat Kohli's men will now have to take a good hard look at themselves and focus on the next season as they remain one of the few teams to have never laid their hands on the trophy.

Here are five reasons for RCB's dismal season:

#1 Death bowling woes

RCB's bowling department has always been their weakness and that trend continued this season as well. They failed to defend scores in excess of 170 a few times and also leaked over 200 a couple of times. The likes of Mohammed Siraj, Chris Woakes, Corey Anderson et al failed miserably at the back end, dishing up half volleys and full tosses instead of yorkers.

While bowlers are expected to get it wrong in a game or two, the sheer number of times they were taken to the cleaners was definitely one of the reasons they were knocked out of the competition.

#2 Poor captaincy

Not a great leader

While Kohli performed admirably with the bat in hand, some of his decisions on the field were baffling. In a couple of matches, he trusted Corey Anderson to bowl the death overs, a plan that backfired spectacularly as Anderson was taken to the cleaners.

The decision to leave Tim Southee out of the side for so long also made little to no sense considering Chris Woakes' struggles. Also, with RCB's bowling struggles, it is surprising that they did not give Navdeep Saini a single game.

The constant shuffling of the batting order also did not help, with RCB trying out multiple combinations at the top, none of which really worked.

#3 Overreliance on Kohli and de Villiers

Too much responsibility on their shoulders

Like in the past seasons, RCB relied far too much on contributions from their dynamic duo, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Kohli amassed 530 runs and de Villiers 480, but there were little to no contributions from the rest of the team, especially the lower middle order.

Moeen Ali scored a quickfire half-century in one of the games but failed in the rest of them. Quinton de Kock and Brendon McCullum were both woeful and the less said about Sarfaraz Khan the better.

Mandeep Singh too struggled at crucial moments and this meant that in the games that Kohli and de Villiers failed, RCB struggled to put up a competitive total.

#4 Mistakes in the auction

Letting him go was a mistake

It was clear from previous seasons that RCB really needed to sort out their bowling issues as well as their support cast. However, they did none of that. While Coulter Nile's injury was a massive blow, they could have replaced him with someone other than Corey Anderson who is well past his prime.

They also made the bizarre decision of retaining Sarfaraz Khan ahead of the likes of KL Rahul and he has shown them exactly what a huge blunder that is by scoring tons of runs for KXIP.

RCB also made a few questionable decisions at the auctions, the key among them being not strengthening the Indian batting core of the team. WIth only Kohli and, to an extent, Parthiv Patel highly experienced at the international level, their lack of depth showed with Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Manan Vohra etc just not stepping up to the occasion.

#5 Lack of Indian batting depth

Not good enough

Manan Vohra, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh and Parthiv Patel are the Indian batsmen part of the RCB camp. None of the four really inspires any confidence.

Vohra played just four matches and scored 55 runs. Parthiv produced a couple of decent innings but was dismissed at crucial junctures in games. Mandeep started well but faded away and Sarfaraz was truly awful the entire campaign. Due to the lack of available options on the bench, RCB had to stick with this lot and it cost them dearly.

On the rare occasions that both Kohli and de Villiers failed, they were simply unable to step up and be counted.