Once upon a time, cricket used to be mostly a simple game of bat and ball, its lazy elegance melted into sun-kissed afternoons. But nowadays, a cricket match, especially in the IPL, is almost like two nuclear-powered teams going to war.
Match-ups, data crunching, armies of support staff working tirelessly like bots to ready the teams and the mood-building on social media by specialist teams... So much goes into the making of an IPL match that in the end, when the game proper finally starts, the players must be feeling like astronauts on a space mission tasked with searching for life on a distant planet. They are prepared for all eventualities, yet they do not know what awaits them.
In a nutshell, it’s complicated. Nothing seems simple about cricket anymore.
But wait, ‘simple’ still works. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have thrived on simplicity in their approach to IPL 2025. So convincing has been their method that their fans believe that their slogan, “Ee sala cup namde (this year the cup is ours)”, may finally turn to reality after teasing them with the dream for years. After two weeks of the tournament, they have tiptoed to three wins in four games.
With all its quirky rules and regulations, for a team, dealing with an IPL match may at times seem like straightening a mosquito coil. But RCB have been straightforward, focusing on the elementary needs to win a match. They have accepted the intricacies but have stubbornly refused to get caught in its whirlpool.
Let’s simplify their simplicity as a team this year. RCB have used seven bowlers so far this season, with the bulk of the overs being bowled by the quartet of Josh Hazlewood, Krunal Pandya, Yash Dayal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. No fancy spinner or express speedster, yet the job gets done. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians have used 11 bowlers each so far and things have been really messy for them.
Just because you have bloated squads, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will have to try out multiple combinations. Why not just zero in on a core group and give them some time to get a footing in this fast-moving format? After all, it is still early in the season, with just about 27 per cent of the total matches completed.
For the record, Delhi Capitals have also used just seven bowlers and they are the only unbeaten side so far this year.
Not just in bowling, RCB score high on the simplicity scale in a few other departments also. Like in batting, they haven’t been afraid to use their best bet, Virat Kohli, as an opener, simply because Kohli loves batting in that position in T20s. CSK, for reasons they know best, haven’t dared to expose Ruturaj Gaikwad at the top of the order. Kohli averages 54.66 from four innings, Gaikwad 30.25 (before Tuesday’s game against Punjab Kings) from the same number of innings. CSK lost three of their first four games.
As a team, RCB have neither scored the most runs in Powerplay, nor do they top the fours-and-sixes list. But as of Monday, they had the most number of fifties.
As a captain, Rajat Patidar has gone about his job in a straightforward, logical manner. For example, in Monday’s match, Patidar made Bhuvneshwar bowl the 16th and the 18th overs when Mumbai Indians were threatening to chase down 222 successfully. It worked. He could have kept Bhuvi for the 19th and 20th overs, given his expertise as a death-overs bowler, but Patidar chose not to overthink and instead answered the demand of the situation with a practical decision.
RCB’s early template in IPL 2025 is a reassurance to cricket that though the glare of floodlights has replaced sunny afternoons, cricket is still a simple game. Ask
one Mr Dhoni, who won CSK five IPL titles without complicating things.
