“Rajat had fractured his knuckle” - RCB director reveals how the war-break helped win IPL 2025

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, revealed how th brief break amid the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign helped their cause towards their maiden title. The franchise were cruising towards the business end of the tournament, before unprecedented circumstances led to the campaign being brought to an abrupt standstill.

Although the franchise were well-placed for a place in the playoffs, they had not cemented a place in the top two yet. Furthermore, the camp was riddled with injuries and niggles to some major players. Skipper Rajat Patidar and bowling spearhead Josh Hazlewood both struggled with some serious setbacks. Devdutt Padikkal, on the other hand, was ruled out of the tournament altogether due to a hamstring tear, as fellow Karnataka batter Mayank Agarwal was named a replacement.

From a workload perspective, the break came at the right time for RCB as Rajat Patidar healed enough to feature as an impact player in their first couple of matches after the break. In his absence, wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma led the side. Josh Hazlewood underwent recovery in Australia, and rejoined the side for the knockout stages.

"We had some injuries and niggles. You know, Rajat had fractured his knuckle. Josh Hazlewood's shoulder niggle had appeared. Dev [Padikkal] was struggling a little bit with his hamstring at that time. The bodies were creaking a little bit because of the schedule. And so, there were pros and cons. You know, I think so long as we could patch up the guys physically, I was quite keen for us to play soon. I wasn't in favour of having to wait a few months to come back. So, I'm glad the break wasn't too long," Mo Bobat said in an interview with Cricbuzz.

"I would say there were upsides and downsides to the break. Mentally it was bad timing because actually we were in a good place. We were playing good cricket. You don't want to lose that feeling and that momentum. So, psychologically, it was a bad time. Physically, it was probably a good time because we had just played seven games in 21 or 22 days, all travelling before and after each one. You know, that was probably the most extensive schedule that any team had," the RCB director added.

RCB faced a slight stutter after the break as their home clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) was washed out. Their next clash against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) was shifted to Lucknow due to inclement weather in Bengaluru, which ended up being a 42-run loss.

"At no point did we try and force them to stay" - Mo Bobat recalls conversations with RCB overseas players ahead of war-break

Franchises were caught in a tough spot after the tournament was suspended midway due to the volatile turn of events. With no concrete clarity regarding the resumption of the tournament at the time of postponement, the majority of the overseas players chose to leave the country, with a fraction of them announcing their intention not to return.

Mo Bobat recalled how RCB navigated through the tense situation, stressing that players were offered to make choices of their own accord without the influence of pressure.

"The moment we caught wind of the postponement, myself and Andy immediately met with the overseas players. I remember they came to my hotel room and we spoke to them. We wanted to make sure that we treated them like adults, because they are. If they didn't feel comfortable being in the country because of the conflict escalating and they wanted to go home, we said we have to honour that. So, at no point did we try and force them to stay. We did the opposite - we gave them choice," Bobat said.

RCB had a near-full contingent when the tournament restarted, barring Jacob Bethell and Lungi Ngidi, who were called up by England and South Africa, respectively, ahead of their international assignments.