In 2025, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) finally shed its Indian Premier League (IPL) title drought. Rajat Patidar’s men have since begun the 2026 season with similar assurance, winning three of their first four matches.

Their 18-run win against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday was further evidence that a side long associated with on-field struggles has quietly transformed itself into a clinical and well-rounded T20 team.

Lessons from the past

It is easy to say in retrospect, but there were signs that RCB could turn its fabled fortunes around. The 2025 title win came after a mega-auction reset, but in the five preceding seasons (2020 to 2024), RCB qualified for the playoffs four times, building a base of consistency even without silverware.

The last of those playoff appearances, in 2024, came on the back of a borderline miraculous run. The side recovered from losing seven of its first eight league matches by winning its next six in a row to sneak into the final qualification spot, before losing the Eliminator to Rajasthan Royals.

That turnaround was driven by a clear shift in approach with the bat. Over that run, its run rate rose from 9.16 in the first eight matches to 10.23 in the final seven, while scoring rates across all three phases increased significantly.

More importantly, the middle-overs slowdown disappeared almost entirely, with batters continuing to attack and maintaining a far more even scoring pattern through the innings.

Life in the fast lane

Since 2025, the personnel have changed entirely, barring Virat Kohli and Patidar, but the attacking intent has not waned. RCB has struck at 9.63 with the bat and maintained a consistent scoring rate throughout the innings.

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While none of its phase-wise run rates — 9.36 in the PowerPlay, 9.04 in the middle overs, and 11.42 at the death — are the very best in the league, they all rank in the top half, underlining the consistency of the batting unit.

Leading the way is the opening pair of Phil Salt and Kohli. Salt, picked for Rs. 11.50 crore after his performances in Kolkata Knight Riders’ 2024 title-winning campaign, is one of the most aggressive PowerPlay batters in world cricket. He complements the more measured Kohli, who has nevertheless found an extra gear.

Together, the pair has put on 731 runs (the third-most of any opening pair) at an average of 43 and a run rate of 10.34 since the start of 2025, combining volume with tempo to give RCB a strong platform.

Unlike the RCB sides of the past, the burden of run-scoring has not rested on a handful of players. Over the 2025 season, 10 different batters have scored half-centuries for the team.

Equally impressively, among frontline batters who have faced at least 10 balls since the start of the 2025 season, all but two have struck at over 140.

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RCB’s batting line-up has thus been remodelled into one that bats deep, scores quickly, and produces contributions across the order. Perhaps more significantly, RCB has shown early signs of correcting a key weakness. In 2025, it won seven of eight matches while chasing, compared to five in eight batting first; in 2026, two of its three wins have already come while setting a target.

The early bird gets the worm

If the batting has been solid without being exceptional, the bowling in the PowerPlay has been dominant. No team has taken more wickets in the first six overs than RCB’s 34. It also leads in average (30.94), strike rate (20.1), and dot-ball percentage (45.1%), while ranking second in economy (9.22).

This dominance is driven by the pairing of Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who account for 20 of those 34 wickets. Interestingly, for two bowlers known for extracting movement with the new ball, their best work has come in the latter half of the PowerPlay.

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Twelve of those wickets have come in that phase, and the team’s 18 wickets between overs four and six are comfortably the best in the league.

Those early breakthroughs have often dented top-heavy batting units and set the stage for the spinners through the middle overs. While RCB’s spinners take relatively fewer wickets, they have been effective, as seen in Krunal Pandya’s three-wicket haul in the 2025 final against Punjab Kings.

Sharing the experience around

After the 2025 mega-auction, RCB released videos outlining its strategy. In one of them, Director of Cricket Mo Bobat spoke about prioritising spending on the starting XII and building a strong Indian core.

That approach aligned with a broader trend: experienced teams tend to win IPL finals. Since 2022, only two players in their maiden IPL season have featured for a title-winning side in a final.

RCB also identified a lack of experience in its Indian contingent in 2024, with Kohli and Dinesh Karthik accounting for 65 per cent of the IPL caps among Indian players.

The auction strategy reflected that insight. The franchise invested heavily in an Indian core, bringing in Bhuvneshwar (Rs. 10.75 crore), Krunal (Rs. 5.75 crore), Jitesh Sharma (Rs. 11 crore), and Devdutt Padikkal (Rs. 2 crore).

None of them dominated pre-auction chatter, and even the most expensive among them went for less than half of what Rishabh Pant commanded. Despite entering the auction with the second-highest purse (Rs. 83 crore), RCB signed just one marquee player.

Yet, this group proved crucial in raising the team’s floor, using experience and clarity to bridge the gap between its best and worst performances, a long-standing issue for the franchise. Each also delivered match-winning contributions at key moments.

A well-constructed T20 team

Everything came together on that night at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The planning, clarity, and execution aligned as RCB emerged as IPL champion for the first time.

Beyond the narrative of a drought ending, this is also a story of how a well-constructed team, built on sound principles and a clear understanding of modern T20 cricket, came into being.

Published on Apr 13, 2026