Follow UsA nine-year-long wait ended at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on May 27 (Tuesday) as for the first time since 2016, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) sealed a top two finish to give themselves two bites at making it to the final.
And like they always do, RCB entertained en route to sealing the top two spot, with stand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma playing arguably the greatest ever knock by an RCB captain in IPL history.
The LSG win has set up a date with Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Qualifier 1 on May 29 (Thursday), but it’s not all unicorns and rainbows for RCB heading into the playoffs.
The Reds will enter the playoffs having conceded in excess of 210 three games in a row, with each of their last two games seeing opponents rack up 225+ totals. The batting fired admirably against LSG, but RCB’s bowling unit has lost form at the worst time possible, and lack of change and improvement will likely see Rajat Patidar’s side once again fall short.
Change in personnel — on the bowling front — seems a non-negotiable at this point, and the good news for RCB is that their trump card Josh Hazlewood is expected to be back for the playoffs.
But the real question for the side is: who makes way for Hazlewood?
If RCB were to stick to the template they’ve employed all season — one overseas pacer + three overseas batters / all-rounders — then it’s a straightforward swap; Hazlewood comes in place of Nuwan Thushara, who had an impressive debut against LSG (1/26).
The issue for RCB, though, is that the real problem in the bowling lies elsewhere, and it’s the form of one of their premier Indian pacers in Yash Dayal.
Dayal’s alarming dip in form, and why it’s a serious cause for concern for RCB
Against Lucknow, Dayal was summoned to bowl the fourth over of the game, and he ended up handing control to the home side, with Rishabh Pant and LSG taking 18 runs off the over. The left-arm seamer eventually finished with 0/44 off 3 overs and was not given a fourth over.
Bad overs and bad games tend to happen in a long tournament like the IPL, but in the case of Dayal, this has been an alarmingly long rut.
Across his last six games, the left-arm seamer has taken just three wickets, but has more concerningly gone at 11.50, maintaining an economy under 10.00 in no games. He went at 14.7 against Lucknow, but there were three other games in which he went above 11 RPO having bowled 2, 3 and 3 overs respectively.
The biggest concern for RCB is how unreliable Dayal has become in the powerplay. Across the first 7 games of the season, the left-armer did a solid job with the new ball for the side. If nothing, he ensured that the runs were kept under check to an extent. Crucially, he was a reliable ‘go-to’ option for Patidar, with the 27-year-old bowling two overs in the powerplay in as many as five games.
Across the last 6 games, though, Dayal has conceded 101 off the 8 overs he’s bowled in the powerplay, and has often been taken off the attack. The reliability factor has completely disappeared, with the left-arm pacer sending down multiple overs in the powerplay just twice in the last six games.
Dayal turning into a liability in the powerplay has thrown off the team’s bowling plans, and his overall dip in form has weakened a bowling unit which was anyway punching above its weight, and needed to keep overperforming to compensate for its lack of well-roundedness.
RCB have a decision to make ahead of the playoffs: stick or twist with Dayal?
Should RCB move away from their template and play two overseas pacers?
Dropping Dayal is easier said than done, since RCB do not really have a better Indian alternative. The only other Indian option is Rasikh Dar, but the right-armer himself got dropped after an ordinary start to the tournament. Not to mention, Rasikh last played on April 2, so it might not be wise to select a player that’s undercooked and rusty.
There is a way around this, though, and that’s playing two overseas seamers - both Hazlewood and Thushara. It’s the most straightforward way to strengthen RCB’s bowling attack, as while Hazlewood has been one of the best bowlers in IPL 2025, Thushara looked superb in the outing against LSG, bamboozling the batters with his late swing with the new ball. A pace attack of Hazlewood, Thushara and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, complemented by Shepherd, Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma, will be the strongest bowling attack RCB can possibly field.
Yet playing two overseas seamers will also come at a cost. It will mean that RCB will have to do away with Liam Livingstone, and instead bring in an Indian finisher (Manoj Bhandage). Such a call will effectively mean RCB moving away from the template that’s secured them a top two finish.
The argument in favor of this change is that, Livingstone is anyway in the midst of a poor run, so swapping him out for an uncapped Indian batter won’t make a big difference. However, trusting and backing players has been the cornerstone of RCB’s success under Mo Bobat and Andy Flower, and so it’s unlikely that they’ll be willing to drop an x-factor player like Livingstone come the playoffs, despite him struggling to buy runs.
Either way, Andy and Mo have a call to make, and it’s a huge one. RCB are two wins away from winning the IPL for the first time ever, and what they choose to do with Yash Dayal could just end up deciding their fate in the competition.