Rahul Dravid explains why CSK dominate IPL and RCB often fail

CSK have lifted the IPL title thrice while RCB are yet to win one.

CSK have the overall win percentage of 61.28 across 12 seasons | IANS

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are certainly the most successful IPL franchise with the overall win percentage of 61.28 across 12 seasons.

Under MS Dhoni's inspirational leadership, CSK have lifted the IPL title thrice and hold the records of most appearances in the playoffs (10) and the final (8). In addition, they have also won the Champions League Twenty20 in 2010 and 2014.

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Decoding the success of Super Kings, former India captain Rahul Dravid recently said it has a lot to do with their owners (India Cements) having the experience of running cricket teams even before the start of Indian Premier League.

“When they got into the IPL, Chennai probably had an advantage over a lot of other franchises because their owners, India Cements, were already in the business of running cricket teams,” Dravid was as quoted in a book written by Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde.

“CSK was just the most high-profile team that they ran. So in a sense they’ve always had people on the ground and their scouting system was probably better right at the start than any other team,” he further added.

In contrast, the Royal Challengers Bangalore are yet to win an IPL title despite having some star-studded players at their disposal. RCB's best performance till date across all the IPL editions is the runners-up finish in 2016.

Dravid compared RCB with CSK and explained how the former have never managed to get their thinking right as far as picking up squads are concerned.

“Bangalore have never balanced their team very well,” observed Dravid. “I think they’ve been very poor with selections and auctions.”

“They had their best year when they had a bowler like Mitchell Starc who was able to close out games for them. But they kept going out and picking gun batsmen.”

Talking about CSK, he said: “There are a lot of foreign players available for four slots. But there are a limited number of quality Indian players available, and the fact that CSK have been able to get some of the best guys has meant that they have always had that core.”

Dravid also believed that CSK have been brilliant because they have had a good bowling attack and always managed to keep the opposition in check.

“That’s where Chennai have always been successful because they’ve often had stronger bowling than Bangalore,” he said.

“For RCB, you always felt they will be chasing a gun death bowler. Then the first thing you realise is they’ve spent 15 crores on Yuvraj Singh and you think, ‘Oh, sh!t! They aren’t in the market for that!’” and by the time a death bowler comes round they won’t be able to spend any money so we can outbid them.”

(Inputs from Hindustan Times)

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 25 Mar, 2020

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