Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) bowling coach Ashish Nehra has criticized the side for revolving around AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli every season. In IPL 2020, the franchise got off to a good start but they couldn't ride on success for long.
RCB lost their last four league matches of IPL 13 and it resulted in settling with number four spot in the points table. At one stage, they were favorites to finish in the top two which could have benefited them in the playoffs.
“RCB are overly dependent on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. The entire team and the squad revolves around them which is not the right thinking as it is a game of 11 players,” Nehra said.
“You should have at least 5 players, you can look at any other franchise, Kings XI Punjab also have similar problems where they don’t have these two as well as they make even more changes. You need to keep 4-5 players with you.
“It will be interesting to see if Aaron Finch will be there with the team next year. These difficulties have been there. Last year they had Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis,” he added.
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Nehra wants RCB to persist with a set of players for two-three years instead of just sticking with Kohli and De Villiers. “You should let the same players be with you for 2-3 years other than those two. These two players and Chahal are always there in RCB. Apart from them, you will not see a fourth name,” Nehra said.
“Washington Sundar did not play last year because the team used to play a lot of matches in Bangalore and Moeen Ali was playing. But now when he got the big ground, he has also bowled well. Mohammed Siraj got hit a lot in Bangalore last year. He got the big grounds and he has also bowled well.
“Otherwise from where will you get the players. You cannot change the entire squad in every auction, that apart from two or three, you will change the rest of the 16 to 18 players. They should stick to the same players for at least three years because making a team is a process in which they are very hasty,” Nehra said.
RCB's IPL 2020 campaign ended after Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated them in the Eliminator by 6 wickets. Kohli had failed to step up for his team despite changing his role from number three to opener for the playoffs.
