NEW DELHI: Former India batter
Ambati Rayudu
suggests that
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
's inability to secure an IPL title stems from the consistent underperformance of highly-paid international stars, leaving the burden on junior players.
Rayudu, a multiple-time IPL champion with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, refrains from naming individuals but hints at the trio of
Virat Kohli
,
Glenn Maxwell
, and Faf du Plessis.
In the ongoing IPL season, RCB has lost two out of three matches. Despite Kohli's 203 runs at a strike-rate exceeding 140, his performances in the Powerplay have been lackluster.
Du Plessis has mustered only 65 runs across four games, while Maxwell's contribution stands at a mere 31 runs in as many matches.
"RCB's bowlers always concede over par runs and their batting unit performs under par," Rayudu told Star Sports after RCB lost to LSG on Tuesday.
"Who are all batting in pressure situations? The young Indian batters and Dinesh Karthik. The big international names, who are supposed to take the pressure, where are they? All are back in the dressing room," Rayudu said.
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He was referring to Mahipal Lomror, who has come in as Impact Sub in a few games and scored at a strike-rate of 230 plus and Karthik, whose cameo was instrumental in their only win of the season so far against Punjab Kings.
Rayudu termed it as a convenient option for senior batters, who are consuming all the Powerplay overs, where scoring runs is easy with field restrictions in place.
"Sixteen years. This is the same story of RCB, when there is pressure, no big name is ever found standing. All youngsters are playing at the back-end and all the big guns bat at the top of the order and they whip off the cream from the cake and that is the reason this team has never won IPL," said the 38-year-old firebrand batter, who played 55 ODIs and six T20Is for India between 2013 and 2019.
(With PTI inputs)
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