Former India player and one of the leading commentators, Irfan Pathan, doesn’t see Royal Challengers Bengaluru progressing to the playoffs in the Indian Premier League 2024. He commented after the team lost their sixth game in the 17th season, going down by 25 runs against the visiting Sunrisers Hyderabad.
It has been a long story of failures, with batters and bowlers failing to play as a team. The fielding has been below standards, with players like Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell dropping catches.
Although Kohli is still leading the runs chart, his contributions have come in a losing cause, with his strike rate being one of the issues. Irfan has predicted that RCB’s season is over, and they can’t play in the knockouts.
“RCB’s season is almost over, and winning seven consecutive games is not possible for them. Even if they manage to do it, 16 points will not guarantee them a place in the playoffs as it is the minimum requirement but not the hundred percent confirmation. The way players have performed shows that the team didn’t compete as a unit and paid the price,” Irfan Pathan said on Star Sports.
He also blamed captain Faf du Plessis for the failures, saying that the South African legend has been associated with the franchise as a captain for three years but hasn’t assembled a winning squad.
Faf was bought by RCB ahead of IPL 2022 and was given a chance to lead the team after Virat Kohli stepped down from the leadership role. Faf did well with the bat but was found to be short as a skipper on all counts.
