IPL 2020: Michael Vaughan says RCB doesn't have enough firepower to lift IPL 13 trophy

Vaughan also said Virat Kohli should have won more games for RCB this season.

Former England captain and cricket pundit Michael Vaughan doesn’t believe Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) led by Virat Kohli have enough firepower to end the 12-year wait for their maiden IPL crown this season by winning the IPL 2020 final in the UAE.

RCB managed to qualify for the playoffs despite a six-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals in their last league match in IPL 2020 in Abu Dhabi on Monday (November 2) by dragging the game beyond 17.3 overs while defending 153 in order to ensure their net run rate is more than Kolkata Knight Riders.

Having qualified for the playoffs on the basis of a superior NRR compared to fourth-placed KKR (-0.214), RCB (0.+555) will now face either Kolkata or Sunrisers Hyderabad, depending on the result of the last IPL 13 clash between SRH and MI on Tuesday (November 3), in the Eliminator on 6^th November (Friday).

Well, RCB’s form was badly hit at the crucial stage of the IPL 2020 despite having managed to find some momentum in the middle of the league with their top performers failing to deliver including captain Kohli himself, leading Vaughan to rule the franchise out of the title race.

However, the Englishman said 2020 is so unpredictable so he can’t say what will happen in the ongoing IPL 13 by saying the RCB skipper Kohli could bat left-handed if needed to break their four-match losing streak in the tournament to lift the title.

Read Also: IPL 2020: ‘RCB have played good enough cricket to earn a qualification spot’, says Virat Kohli

Vaughan told Cricbuzz: “Can the RCB team win it this year? I’ve said that from the beginning, I don’t think they’ve got enough collectively to win it. Look anything is possible particularly in 2020, the world’s been turned upside down so who knows what’s gonna happen. Virat Kohli might bat left-handed and win them the game (in a gest) but it’s a tall order.”

He further said the RCB doesn’t have enough players who can perform under the pressure of playoffs while underlining the franchise has only the option to play a hard and aggressive brand of cricket to have the chances to win their maiden IPL trophy in the UAE.

The commentator explained, “I look at teams and individuals and see are there enough individuals in the RCB team full of confidence to play in the pressure that they would be under... I guess the one thing in RCB’s favor is that they’ve got no other options but to play hard and aggressive cricket.”

With both Kohli and AB de Villiers failed to score enough to win IPL 13 games for RCB, Vaughan said the RCB captain should be winning more games for his team in the tournament. The right-hander has scored 460 runs at an average of 46 in 14 matches so far but his strike rate has 122.1 – the lowest among the top five run-scorers of the ongoing IPL 2020 and Vaughan felt it should have over 140 given his class.

The Englishman further noted, “2020 is the year that Virat Kohli became normal. He’s found that there are many other players who have gone through these kinds of struggles. It is not really a massive struggle for Kohli because the numbers are still are over 400 runs at a strike rate of 122 but he is better than that. He is a player that should be striking at over 140.”

Vaughan signed off by saying, “He should be winning the RCB more games than he has done but as I said, he is a human being. Everyone can have periods where it doesn’t come quite as easy, as maybe as he had done in the last few years. Maybe things have not gone his way, lose a bit of confidence. The mindset’s not quite the way it was.”