IPL 2025: 3 Threats for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)

At Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), there is a lot of enthusiasm in the camp as the team prepares to compete for its first Indian Premier League (IPL) championship when the IPL 2025 season starts.

On Saturday, March 22, RCB will play the defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens to begin their campaign.

Faf du Plessis, who was fired by the team after two top-four finishes in the previous three seasons, has been replaced as captain of RCB, one of the three teams from the first season that has yet to win the IPL, by Rajat Patidar for the 2025 tournament.

With this, let's take a look at the major threats that might plague RCB in the IPL 2025 season.

Here are the 3 threats for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2025:

1. Rajat Patidar’s inexperience as captain

There was anticipation that Virat Kohli would be reappointed as the RCB captain when they let go of Faf du Plessis, who led them in three IPL seasons. However, everyone was surprised when RCB decided to appoint MP Rajat Patidar as their new.

Patidar has not captained yet in the IPL, and his only experience comes from captaining Madhya Pradesh in a domestic T20 tournament. The RCB fan base puts lots of pressure on their team, and the lack of an IPL trophy will be felt by Patidar as well. Plus, RCB has always been at a disadvantage playing at their home in Bengaluru, and Patidar’s captaincy will be tested on that batting beauty of a wicket.

2. Too much dependence on foreign batters for power

Royal Challengers Bengaluru boasts of a dangerous batting lineup but has failed to acquire even a single Indian big-hitting batter. Their power hitters are all foreign: Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Tim David, and Romario Shepherd. The only notable Indian names who can hit big are Jitesh Sharma and Krunal Pandya.

However, balancing playing XI to pick the best power-hitters will be a huge task for the RCB team. Jitesh Sharma and Krunal Pandya are almost sure to play, and Phil Salt will open the innings with Virat Kohli. This leaves virtually one or two spots open for overseas players, and RCB can either pick a power hitter or pacers.

3. Lack of convincing backups

RCB's playing XI is one of the most dangerous ones with balance in both batting and bowling departments.  RCB’s first-choice playing XI is very dangerous with the likes of Kohli, Salt, Patidar, Livingstone, Jitesh, Krunal, Bhuvneshwar, Dayal, and Hazlewood to boost, but they don’t have the same quality in backup players.

Apart from Devdutt Padikkal, Suyash Sharma, Swastik Chikkara, Manoj Bhandage, Mohit Rathee, Abhinandan Singh, and others don’t instill much confidence in RCB fans. In case one of the main players is unavailable for some reason, RCB doesn’t have the same quality to replace them.

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