Shamik Chakrabarty, Ahmedabad
The punchlines should have expired last year itself. The tragic aftermath of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s maiden title triumph ensured that they didn’t.
Sport can induce tribalism. What should have been RCB’s finest hour became their lowest point.
The punchlines have finally expired now, after securing back-to-back IPL titles. For so long, RCB have been the IPL’s ultimate enigma — a franchise with a gargantuan fan base, an unmatched star cast, but an empty trophy cabinet. Since the inception of the IPL, they had a deep-seated desire to boast galacticos. Collectively, they were the tournament’s “nearly men”.
Sport, though, works in cycles. The league’s power centre has shifted to Bengaluru. Decimating Gujarat Titans in the final and winning their second title at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday makes things definitive. The RCB era has begun in earnest.
The franchise carried the scars of failure for long. Before 2025, RCB had reached the final three times — in 2009, 2011 and 2016. Every time, they fell agonisingly short. The team mantra — Ee Sala Cup Namde — had become a joke. Nobody is laughing now — Ee Sala Nu Cup Namdu.
Forget the hard numbers and individual exploits — Virat Kohli oozing greatness, Bhuvneshwar Kumar rolling back the years, Josh Hazlewood hitting the deck hard, and Rajat Patidar going ballistic in the middle overs while leading the side well. RCB had bigger stars and better match-winners before — Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Kevin Pietersen. They were prisoners of star culture. They needed a culture shift. They needed to become a marching song of the proletariat to be successful, which happened under Dinesh Karthik (batting coach and mentor), Mo Bobat (director of cricket) and Andy Flower (head coach). The captaincy change, made belatedly, was long overdue. Better late than never.
Patidar agreed with the culture-shift observation.
“Definitely, I think culture has changed but I don’t know what the culture was (before) because I played from 2021,” the skipper said at the post-match press conference after winning the trophy. “There were a lot of changes in the mindset of the players. I think all the credit goes to the coaching staff.”
He elaborated on this, saying:
“The way they (coaching staff) are handling the players, especially the new players who are coming in… They are also an important part of the team, not only the experienced players who are playing. The coaching staff is treating every player equally. That is the change I feel.”
Ask Patidar about Flower, and he would wax lyrical.
“He is one of the best coaches, I feel, because of the way he handles players,” said the skipper. “Not only the players who are playing. I think for him it is the players who are not playing, the new players who are coming in, the first time they are playing their first IPL season. He spent a lot of time with every individual. So, you know, I don’t have words for him, but he is the best coach I have played under.”
Under this coaching staff, players don’t feel left out even if they aren’t playing. Venkatesh Iyer is a case in point. For a significant chunk of the season, he was warming the bench. Then Phil Salt picked up an injury, went to England, and there was a void at the top. Venkatesh seamlessly fitted into that void and formed an opening pair with Kohli, so impactful that Salt had to sit out after returning to the fold.
“They were ready and of course DK (Karthik) was there,” said Patidar. “I have seen a lot of players who are not getting chances and they are spending a lot of time at the nets with DK. So I think they are ready. Whenever they get a chance, they will do it for the team.”
Tactically, too, RCB have been brilliant, both at the auction and on the field. If you look at the batsmen around Kohli and the four international bowlers who can execute the strategy, the winning formula was set there. RCB look every bit a side that can pull off a hat-trick of titles.
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