IPL 2019: Inconsistent RCB may struggle v shining Knights

Royal Challengers skipper Virat Kohli

It's all been happening in this edition of the IPL. There has been a Mankading incident, a hat-trick from players of the same team, one young Indian batsman notching up a hundred, another a 99. We have already had one Super Over while someone as accomplished as Dwayne Bravo has been taken for as many as 29 runs in a single over.

But we are still awaiting a RCB win. And seeing the good form of KRR, their opponents at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here tonight, we might have to wait for a while more. Have faith is what the fans are being told but does the team have faith in itself? Faith means consistency in selection. Three different opening pairs in the four games lost thus far is not evidence of faith or consistency. Faith has also to do with using the chosen resources well.

For example, you can't have a player with proven international class like Moeen Ali opening one match, dropping to No. 3 in another and No. 5 and 6 later. With the ball, the man who troubled Indians in England on recent tours, albeit mainly in Tests, has bowled his full quota in only one game [on the rank turner in Chennai and with 70 on the board] and sent down a lone over each in two other games.

How different from KKR, who by asking Prasidh Krishna, their youngest member, to bowl the Super Over against Delhi, showed true faith. "To be honest, it's been like that from my first game. DK [skipper Dinesh Karthik] has always trusted me and I bowled in the death last season as well. As a bowler and a youngster in the team, it's nice when your captain and coaching staff trusts you," said the lanky Bangalore-based KKR pacer recently.

Of course, it could be argued that winning teams are more consistent as they can carry some players simply because they are winning, like with CSK, who have persisted with Ambati Rayudu as opener without him having any runs to show. But the fact is that it is consistency that sets up the wins. The RCB think tank has to come around this thought. They have to provide the chosen XI with a sense of security.

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