Five mistakes that led to RCB's dismal start in IPL 2024

The misery continues for Royal Challengers Bengaluru as they were handed their fourth loss of IPL 2024 by Rajasthan Royals on Saturday (April 6). With this loss, RCB have now slipped to 8th position in the points table and they became the first team in this season to lose four matches.

Despite high expectations from the team before the start of the season, they have been disappointing in most aspects. From player performances to team selection, RCB are getting it wrong and have been unable to find the right team combination so far. This has been disappointing for their huge fanbase, who are still waiting for their maiden IPL trophy.

Five mistakes that led to RCB's dismal start in IPL 2024

Benching Vijaykumar Vyshak, Mahipal Lomror

RCB decided to bench both Vijaykumar Vyshak and Mahipal Lomror against Rajasthan Royals. Both the players showed good form in the limited opportunities they have got during the competition. Vyshak took 1-23 in his four overs in the match against KKR where other regular quicks went for more than 11 runs per over. But he was dropped from the next two games against LSG and Rajasthan Royals.

Meanwhile, Mahipal Lomror played a key role in RCB's only win of the season so far. The youngster scored 17* off just 8 balls to take his team to a narrow win over Punjab Kings  He also scored 33 runs off just 13 balls in the match against Lucknow Super Giants, albeit in a losing cause. But Lomror was dropped for Saurav Chauhan in the match against Rajasthan Royals.

Cameron Green trade blunder

Cameron Green was traded by Royal Challengers Bengaluru from Mumbai Indians for INR 17.5 crores before IPL 2024 auction. But he has had modest returns so far. Green has scored just 68 runs in five matches at an average of 17 and a strike rate of 108. With the ball too, he has not been at his best so far, having picked up just 2 wickets at an average of 52.5 and an economy rate of 9.40.

Green has been a top order batter in white-ball cricket and he has had most of his success there. Despite already being a top-heavy line-up, RCB signed Green, hoping he could change their fortunes. So far, Green has been tried on different batting positions but is yet to get a significant score. His trade for such a huge sum of money, has turned out to be a blunder for RCB.

Not adding to spin attack in the auction

This was probably one of the biggest blunders made by the RCB management during the auction. Just like the last season, they lack a quality spinner in this season as well. They started with Karn Sharma in 2023 but had to drop him because of poor returns. RCB were expected to bolster their spin attack in this year's auction but instead, they opted for additional fast bowlers. The most surprising thing was that they didn't even try to add any quality spinner.

They had the option of adding legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga but did not bid for him and Sunrisers Hyderabad made full use of it by signing the Sri Lankan legspinner at a reasoanble price. Currently, they have Mayank Dagar, Karn Sharma, and Himasnshu Sharma in their squad which definitely doesn't make it the best spin attack. Against Rajasthan Royals, the spin duo of Mayank Dagar and Himanshu Sharma had combined figures of 63-0 in 4 overs.

Questionable decisions to bring in new players

The decision to bring in new players like Saurav Chauhan and Himanshu Sharma against Rajasthan Royals backfired for RCB. Saurav Chauhan was brought in for the in-form Mahipal Lomror. The young left-hander scored 9 runs off 6 balls and could not provide his team the late flourish. He struggled for timing against a quality RR attack.

Meanwhile, legspinner Himanshu Sharma struggled for control in the two overs he bowled.  He was up against one of the most destructive players in the IPL, Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson. Both the batters didn't allow the youngster to settle down and kept attacking him. Himanshu went for 29 runs in his 2 overs without a wicket to his name.

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Poor use of impact substitute

The use of impact substitute hasn't been the best from RCB this season. In some of the matches this season, they have used Mahipal Lomror as an impact player when they are batting, while Dinesh Karthik has been present in the first-choice playing XI despite Anuj Rawat taking the gloves.

The decision becomes questionable as Mahipal Lomror bowls left-arm spin and is a quality fielder as well. He offers more variety to the attack as compared to Karthik, who is a specialist batter if he does not keep wickets. Instead of Lomror, Karthik could have been used as an impact player.

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