Cliff Notes – RCB’s winning formula comes with a distinct Indian flavour
- Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) has successfully enhanced their performance by effectively utilising their Indian players, with notable improvements from Devdutt Padikkal and Jitesh Sharma this season.
- The franchise made strategic auction decisions, acquiring impactful overseas players like Phil Salt and Josh Hazlewood, which has contributed to their competitive edge.
- Captain Rajat Patidar has emerged as a key figure, demonstrating strong leadership and tactical acumen, particularly in high-pressure situations against formidable opponents.
Virat Kohli is a fan boy. He has spent a part of his time at Royal Challengers Bengaluru dancing with Chris Gayle, nerding out with AB de Villiers and being blown away by Glenn Maxwell. In all that time, the team has tasted a lot of success. Four play-off appearances in the last five years. But that was never enough. Not for this franchise. Not with their history.
At the auction, they did a lot of good business. Once more, they were able to attract high-impact overseas players. Phil Salt was a dream buy. His aggression at the top compensates for the others. Tim David has the power to make anything happen. He once changed a game facing just 14 balls. Josh Hazlewood broke the game open at Chepauk and closed the game out at Wankhede.
But there is another thing that RCB are doing right. Something that they rarely have. They’re getting more out of their Indian players.
Devdutt Padikkal has faced 49 deliveries in IPL 2025. He’s hit 11 of them for boundaries. His strike rate right now is 159.18. That’s twice as much as it was last season. A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to effect such a change.
“I knew there were things that I needed to improve,” Padikkal said, “And there were lots of aspects of the game that I wasn’t up to the mark I felt in the last year. I had a good couple of months before the IPL started and I feel all that hard work is coming into effect now.”
Padikkal had a good start to his IPL career, scoring three fifties in his first four innings and a hundred by the time he was 21. Usually, that might have meant he could settle into the team and grow into his role. But in the IPL, its different. Rajasthan Royals came calling and he had to do it prove himself all over again. Then he moved to Lucknow Super Giants where he had that horror season, averaging 5.49 and striking at 71.69
“When I made that move to another franchise, it was a little uncomfortable obviously. I wasn’t very confident about myself and it took me 3-4 years to really find what I am as a cricketer in IPL. So it’s not that easy, you try your hardest but at times it just doesn’t work. So coming into this season, obviously I had to work really hard.
“Coming in at No. 3, obviously that is a role that has been given to me, I feel in T20 cricket these days everybody pretty much has the same role, to go out and hit from ball one, so that doesn’t really make any difference in terms of what I have to do as well, so yeah that’s how it’s been going and hopefully I can carry on in the same way.”
Jitesh Sharma is a livewire. Where other batters might have needed convincing about the tempo of T20 cricket, he came fully formed. Batting down the order requires some sacrifice. Specifically, you can never play for your own runs. Jitesh has on average found the boundary once every five deliveries in the IPL. This season, he’s been even more destructive. One in three deliveries he’s faced has ended up in the fence, including a near yorker from Jasprit Bumrah.
“Jitesh has been terrific,” Krunal Pandya said at the end of the game. “I mean, the way he has batted, if you see, he has improved his game. The game awareness what he’s having while batting has been top notch. Again he has worked really hard, and with gloves he has been terrific, always. Working hard and you know, seeing the result, it feels good.”
It is early in the season, but Jitesh is the one of only nine players averaging over 40 and striking at over 180.
Bridging the gap between the top order and the finishers is the captain. Rajat Patidar came in as an unknown quantity but seems to be happy with the responsibility. Crucially, it hasn’t affected his batting. He is RCB’s best player of spin and their primary source of impetus in the middle overs. He has performed that role to perfection against both of the IPL’s five-time champions.
A significant test of his captaincy arrived as Mumbai clobbered 89 runs in 34 balls through the middle overs to bring themselves back into the game. At the end of 16 overs, they were 170 for 4, the first time in the game where their score had ticked over RCB’s at the same stage. They were looking favourites to chase down 222. But Patidar was able to rally his bowlers and it appears he had a hand in the defensive masterclass that Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Krunal pulled off.
“At that time, I think the message was, the wide yorkers, I think that was not a good option,” Patidar said. “The way all the bowlers, especially the fast bowlers the way they have executed their plans, I think that was really amazing and the one bowler, I think the way he has bowled, KP, Krunal Pandya, the last over, I think that was not easy to be bowling any of the team, against any team, 20th over. The way he has bowled, that was really amazing. The way he has shown courage, that was really fantastic.”
RCB conceded only 28 runs and took five wickets in those last three overs. They had to dig real deep. “That was a really amazing match and that was very hard, I think,” Patidar said.
RCB look different now. They’re getting the best out of even their unheralded players. Maybe 18th time really is the charm.
“I don’t want to jinx it,” Krunal said. “Or I don’t want to say. But we all know, right, when you get into this tournament, what we want at the end of the tournament.”