The Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the IPL for the maiden time in 18 years.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) scripted the latest fairytale in the 18-year history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise beat the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Final of IPL 2025 to lift their maiden title after a wait of almost two decades. Just after the Final got over, we could see the elation on the faces of the players. But out of all, that moment belonged to Virat Kohli. In an interview after the Final, he mentioned that he had given his youth, prime, and experience to this franchise. After he was picked in 2008, Kohli stuck with the side through their highs and lows. This victory meant a lot to the RCB fans, who are considered to be one of the most loyal fan bases.
Freddie Wilde, the analyst at RCB, recently revealed some astonishing facts about the planning that went behind every game. The analyst expressed that he was appointed to the role when Faf du Plessis was the skipper of the franchise. He also explained the role of data and the amount of importance that it plays on a day-to-day basis. Scripting a structure in the podcast with Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad, he went on to elaborate on the way he used to conduct team meetings. He also stated that Virat Kohli’s inputs and the way his cricketing brain used to function were unbelievable during those sessions. Wilde expressed that Kohli’s gut instinct matched the data almost on every occasion. The analyst said that this is a clear indication of how a player is involved in the game.
“In team meetings, quite often I’ll lead by sharing information. You can see Virat’s cricketing brain kick in during those moments. His contributions to those meetings are often excellent. He’ll pick up stuff sometimes that the data doesn’t show, sometimes that it does. He’s not necessarily asking for lots of data, but what’s reassuring is that his gut instinct quite often matches up with the data. That shows something, and I think you get that with quite a few players. Quite often, he’ll say things, and then you go away and look at it, or you’ve already done your research, and it matches up. That, I think, is always quite an impressive trait in a player”, said Wilde during the podcast.
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What Freddie Wilde suggested in the podcast was simply an insight into what went behind RCB’s preparation. This was before every game, and the way they used to conduct their meetings. The analyst also spoke about the contributions of former skipper Faf du Plessis. He said that his first year was with the Protea at the helm, and also suggested that the interaction with data is very minimal on a day-to-day basis. He shared that the areas Faf was good at were usually the team and batting meetings. Wilde went on to state that he himself would lead the meeting by sharing information. That is when the players would use those points as a discussion within themselves in the room.
“I’ve never worked with him [ Kohli] whilst he was captain. My first year at RCB was when we had Faf as captain. But in terms of his interaction with data, it’s pretty minimal on a day-to-day basis. Where he is absolutely brilliant is in team meetings and batting meetings. We go through bowler by bowler, what balls they have, where they bowl in different phases of the innings, and that’s really just a prompt for a discussion between the guys in the room”, Wilde expressed.
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