RCB and their starting troubles

The Royal Challengers Bangalore has, perhaps, the biggest fan base amongst the IPL teams which have never won the pivotal IPL trophy. This fact speaks about the loyalty of the RCB fans over the years, they stood by the team through the thick and thins. If we look at the possible reasons why the Bengaluru franchise has failed to win the trophy even with few of the biggest names in T20 cricket, the answer largely lies in the way they start the tournament.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise fared much better in the second half of most of the seasons. In fact, if the points table is made by considering only the second leg of the league, RCB can qualify two or three times more than the number of times they have actually qualified.

In almost every season, RCB ends up with an equation of needing to win all the games in the last leg. Since T20 is an unpredictable format, it is extremely hard to win games consistently. RCB have qualified to playoffs five times and in all of those seasons, they have won 3 or more games in the first seven games.

Except in 2016 where they won only 2 games in the first leg but were still qualified thanks to an extremely strong finish in the second leg.

Let's have a closer look at the most recently concluded season. In 2018 edition, RCB started with Chris Woakes as their all-rounder and then moved to Corey Anderson. With Corey experiment also failing, they tried to bring in Moeen Ali and Colin De Grandhomme.

During all these trial and error, RCB have lost 5 of their first 7 games. Even though RCB had a strong performance in second leg winning 4 out of 7 games, they failed to qualify to the playoffs by 2 points. If they had realised early in the season that someone like Moeen is their best option, it could've been a different story for RCB.

If we look at the more successful teams of IPL, they generally start well, winning 4 to 5 games out of first 7 games which makes sure that 3 wins in the second leg of the tournament are enough to qualify to the playoffs.

Success mantra lies in sticking to the same eleven during home games and change the playing combination depending on the conditions when the team is travelling. RCB should try this formula at least for one season.

If RCB wants to change their fate they should figure out a settled line up as early as possible so that they can afford one or two losses in the fag end of the tournament.