IPL History: Top 4 unlucky to play for RCB 

The 12th edition of the IPL is just around the corner and the excitement about the new season has already begun. Even though many overseas players won’t be available or will leave early, there is enough quality in the Indian domestic players to step up and fill that void. All the teams are looking strong and at the moment it’s really hard to predict a winner. But whenever you talk about the IPL there is one team you have to talk about and that’s the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

There are so many discussions around RCB every year about how this is their best chance ever but somehow it never clicks. RCB has made it to the finals of the IPL thrice but has failed to win even once. They have two of the best batsmen the world has ever seen but still, they haven’t lifted the IPL trophy yet.

RCB seems to have two different sides, one on the paper and the other playing on the field. Talking about the RCB there are many players in the Bangalore team who were good or had the talent but just didn’t get enough opportunities due to various reasons. So, let’s have a look at four such players who were unlucky to play for RCB.

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#4 Shadab Jakati

Shadab Jakati

Shadab Jakati first played under the captaincy of MS Dhoni for the Chennai Super Kings in 2009. He had a really great season that year as he picked up 13 wickets in just 9 games. Due to his good performances, he cemented his spot in the CSK team. He played for CSK till 2012 and then, later on, he was signed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2014.

Unfortunately, he was signed at the wrong time as RCB had one of the best spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan. He was obviously their first choice spinner. Whenever RCB wanted to play two spinners they preferred the young Yuzvendra Chahal to Jakati.

Chahal performed well in his first few games and so he was persisted with. Jakati got only one opportunity for RCB that too against his former side CSK. He was dropped for the next season. Gujrat Lions picked him in the 2016 season but he couldn’t do anything significant for them. Jakati truly got the opportunity with RCB at the wrong time.

#3 Darren Sammy

Darren Sammy

Darren Sammy was part of the Royal Challengers Squad in 2015. He was part of the SRH team in the previous seasons and had even captained the franchise for a few games. His timing with the RCB team wasn’t the greatest.

In the 2015 season, RCB had three of their four overseas players fixed. Chris Gayle, AB ce Villiers and Mitchell Starc who was in red hot form in the 2015 World Cup took up those three spots. He was fighting for the all-rounder’s spot with David Wiese. He was given an opportunity before Wiese but failed to capitalize on it.

To be fair to Sammy, he was dropped only after two failures. Wiese got a chance in the third game and he performed well. After that, the former Windies captain didn’t get a single game for RCB that season. It was unfortunate that a player like Sammy was dropped only after two bad games.

#2 Samuel Badree

Samuel Badree

Samuel Badree was one of the best T20 bowlers in the world when he was picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2016 season. Before coming to RCB he had played a few IPL games for CSK and RR. Unfortunately, he got injured before the IPL and couldn’t play a single game that year.

He came in 2017 but had to stiff competition for the fourth overseas spot. But still, Badree performed well in whatever chances he got for RCB. In the seven matches which he played, he picked up nine wickets which included a hat-trick against Mumbai Indians. The special thing about the hat-trick was that he bowled Rohit Sharma through the gate to pick up his third wicket.

But even after performing so well he had to make way for one of the pacers in some of the games. RCB could have used him better in the IPL. Badree went unsold in the 2018 IPL auction.

#1 Billy Stanlake

Billy Stanlake

Billy Stanlake was picked by RCB in the 2017 Auction after his good showing in the BBL. The tall pacer was picked in the IPL for the first time that year. RCB had picked four overseas bowlers that year to bolster their bowling line-up as they were going to miss the services of Mitchell Starc for the second consecutive year.

Stanlake bowls really quick and makes use of his height really well. He bowls at an awkward height which the Indian domestic batsmen aren’t comfortable with. But he too got picked up at the wrong time. Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and AB ce Villiers were part of the RCB XI almost every game.

So three of the four overseas slots were already sealed. There was a competition between Adam Milne, Tymal Mills, Samuel Badree and Stanlake for the fourth spot. Stanlake was the unluckiest as he got only two games in the whole season.