A New Captain But Familiar Challenges Await RCB 2025

What’s going on with RCB for the newly commenced cycle?

A shift in leadership for starters. Rajat Patidar will have huge shoes to fill when he begins assuming a position that is certain to draw enormous amounts of criticism. Leading a franchise that has one of the most challenging home venues in the competition will top his to-do list. Historically high-scoring due to its short boundaries, building an ideal bowling attack has always been difficult. Since 2017, no team has a worse home record than RCB, whose woeful 44.12 win percentage highlights the challenge that is on offer. For more Latest Cricket Update, Click Here

In that regard, RCB have made some purchases that are expected to improve the team. The skill set of Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood adds tremendous value, making this a bold bet. A lot will depend on how they face the Chinnaswamy challenge when it comes to RCB’s progress in IPL 2025.

The new recruits in batting have a touch of English with Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, and Jacob Bethell arriving with impressive track records in T20 cricket. At least two, if not more, would have significant impacts to the template which RCB have worked with in the past Salt up front provides an aggressive counter to Kohli and it remains to be seen whether he can form a successful partnership. Livingstone brings the muscle in the middle along with his various forms of spin which might be useful when match-ups are needed. Tim David and Romario Shepherd add more firepower to the lower middle order where Jitesh Sharma, the replacement for Dinesh Karthik, has plenty of work to do. While they have like-for-like replacements for some of the successful roles in the past, it is the current form these players have that would be of interest.

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Full Squad

Rajat Patidar (c), Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd, Tim David, Swastik Chikara, Krunal Pandya, Manoj Bhandage, Swapnil Singh, Mohit Rathee, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Lungi Ngidi, Rasikh Dar Salam, Suyash Sharma, Yash Dayal, Nuwan Thushara, Abhinandan Singh

The best XII as things stand

Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma/Rasikh Dar Salam

Injury/Availability Issues

Hazlewood has suffered an injury that has kept him sidelined for a long time, and he is fit to play now which raises the question of how the bowling unit will be structured. They do have Lungi Ngidi and Nuwan Thushara as other pace alternatives, but Hazlewood is an overseas bowler RCB would love to have fit and firing.

The player ready to redeem themselves is…

Devdutt Padikkal

Padikkal is no longer the next big name that is emerging out of the Karnataka’s cricketing factory and it is fair to say that he has been out of form and struggled to score runs during the limited opportunities he has had to bat outside the powerplay. Now with good chances of claiming a position in the top-order, it will be Padikkal’s opportunity to make the most out of the chances and redeem lost glory.

Is there a player who has the potential to break out this season?

Rasikh Dar Salam

It is debatable whether he starts, but he was able to make an impression for Delhi Capitals last season. Even at RCB, in an unforgiving ground, even the smallest of impacts could be useful to his early days.

Fixture build-up and run-in…

They have two away first before having their home game. However, they will have two home games to close out the league rounds. Towards the latter part if there is a fight for points or NRR, which is very likely with the IPL, RCB will have some understanding of what they need to do to perform better than their peers.

A home ground stat to watch out for this season

RCB has been the most expensive team over the last two seasons, and they have bowled the fewest share of overs of spin as well (29.1%). Costly spinners’ grave in India, Chinnaswamy stadium is second only to Hyderabad for letting runs (ER 9.24) in this period. RCB will be hoping with their new signings of Krunal (7.25) and Suyash Sharma, these numbers will improve to even the scales.