Swaroop Swaminathan By

Express News Service

Before the 12th edition of IPL opened, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli appeared in a small teaser for the tournament. The two cricketers, shown drinking a hot beverage, are soaking in the adulation of sc­­ores of fans gathered in front of what looks like a high-rise building.

After the Chennai Super Kings skipper finishes his drink, he places his glass on top of a yellow coaster before giving his opposite number some unsolicited advice.

“Don’t be late,” he says, and exits the frame. A smiling Kohli then picks up a red coaster to place it on top of Dhoni’s glass.

The first two weeks of the season are over, and Kohli perhaps should have taken Dhoni’s advice a bit more seriously.

After all, the former India captain was subtly indicating the truth: no active IPL team starts slower than Royal Challengers Bangalore in the history of the competition. In the 11 seasons from 2008 to 2018, Bangalore have lost a hat-trick of fixtures within the first five rounds a record seven times (Mumbai Indians are second worst with four).

If only Kohli had listened. On March 31, Bangalore bettered their own record, losing three fixtures on the bounce in the opening weeks for the eighth time. They are now just a match away from equalling one of the league’s more infamous records: Delhi Daredevils’ six-match losing run, when they opened their campaign in 2013.

Bangalore’s next opponents? Delhi Capitals, come Sunday evening.

The story of how Sandeep Warrier was recruited is indicative of the structural problems that continue to hamper the franchise. Having excelled during a net session before an ODI against England in Kochi in January 2013, Kohli was quick to recommend his name to the management.

Less than 10 days later, Bangalore had made Warrier one of their own. Considering Kohli — months before taking charge as permanent captain of the franchise — had moved fast to beat the competition (Kolkata Knight Riders were also after him), one would have expected Warrier to feature at some stage.

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That didn’t happen. For three years, Warrier played every role except the one he had been signed up for: cricketer. It is also reflective of Kohli’s less-than-impressive man-management skills whenever he turns out in Bangalore’s Red and Black.

Something similar happened during the 2019 auction. Bangalore bought young Bengal leg-spinner Prayas Ray Barman for Rs 1.5 crore.

The 16-year-old had finished as the highest wicket-taker for Bengal in the domestic one-day competition in early 2019 but was yet to play a T20 game at any competitive level.

But the envelope was pushed for getting him.

Thinking about jumping a hurdle well ahead of time is well and good, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of ignoring current challenges. That’s exactly what happened as Bangalore ignored their perennial Achilles Heel: death bowling.

In this context, it was fascinating to hear Kohli speak after Andre Russell had obliterated them in the slog overs during their loss against Kolkata on Friday.

“Our bowling in the last four overs was unacceptable,” he said. That’s a fair shout but the 30-year-old has been treated to this film many times before. Out of the many revealing stats tweeted out since Friday night, one stands out. Teams have chased 90 or more off 42 balls only nine times in the competition. Bangalore had bowled on six of those occasions.

This also speaks of a wider malaise within the franchise. Multiple former Bangalore players and one former support staff told this newspaper that the side wasn’t big on “homework”.

“From the outside, it looks like they are not doing that,” a player who was part of the system under the previous owner said.

The former support staff gives more insight into the lack of planning and a scattershot approach to the auction table.

“I don’t think they do any work. On smallish grounds with quick outfields, you need proven match-winners to clinch you games at the death... Their transfer strategy doesn’t reflect this.”

A culture of “sink or swim” was also inadvertently promoted as the side’s plans did not revolve around “the rest”, another former player remarked.

“Given the understandable emphasis on Kohli, AB de (Villiers) and (Chris) Gayle... other players seldom entered the equation. What that led to was they absolutely had to perform in the limited chances they got. If they failed, they were quickly jettisoned for some other guy and that same cycle of fear of failure began. Most plans are tailored to suit the top three, which puts pressure on lesser players. Even when they get chances, they know they are one slip-up away from going back to the bench.”

It was this strategic more of swimming without any protective gear that may have cost the likes of Saurabh Tiwary. When the left-hander was bought by Bangalore from Mumbai for an eye-popping sum before the 2011 season, it was supposed to be the start of something better.

Bangalore were one of the few franchises who did not have a power-hitter in their middle-order, so the Jamshedpur native was expected to plug that long-standing problem.

But with him getting very few chances to get his eye in, returns quickly dried out. As a consequence, his metrics plummeted. An average of 29.92 at a strike-rate of 135.59 dropped to 23.37 and 99.46. Tiwary’s three worst years in terms of strike-rate (minimum 100 ru­ns) came when he was with Bangalore.

While the sample size is small in Shimron Hetmyer’s case, the southpaw too is going through a similar phase. But for a different reason. He has played four matches in three different positions (opened twice, two-drop once and then three-drop).

Having excelled on Indian pitches during the West Indies ODIs in India late last year, and after catching the eye during Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the Guyanese was expected to provide muscle in their middle-order. But he now has an average of 3.75 and a strike-rate of 57.

In fact, there are multiple stories like Hetmyer (who could still come good) and Tiwary. Established players seem to suffer from stage fright when with Bangalore. Dale Steyn, Shane Watson, Yuvraj Singh (back when he was still good), and even Dinesh Karthik… this is definitely not an exhaustive list.

Bizarrely enough, a player’s IPL career is magically resurrected after leaving Bangalore. Take the case of Watson. He went from being captain to 12th man in the space of four games in 2017. The next year, he was Chennai’s kingmaker with the bat.

The question then is simple. Where are Kohli and Bangalore’s management going wrong in terms of utilising their resources? One player who has featured under multiple captains said perhaps Kohli’s natural approach to the game was weighing him down.

“He is aggressive. But a good T20 captain needs to be calm and proactive, more than just being reactive.”

Kohli and De Villiers are supreme athletes and thrive under pressure. But a vast majority of their teammates don’t. This claim was made by an individual whose job is to study these aspects. “They don’t have a single player who has the capacity to win games under pressure. Other teams are much better in this regard.”

The individual also supported the support staff’s claims that Bangalore regularly got their auction bids wrong.

“Each franchise should have a strong middle-order, preferably Indian. I don’t think they ever took this seriously enough.” One area where the conce­rned person wasn’t in agreement with general sentiment was with the way Bangalore have handled players from Karnataka.

A few players this newspaper spoke to asked why the likes of KL Rahul, Manish Pandey and Mayank Agarwal are not playing for th­em. “Local flavour will definitely help,” a former Karnataka Ranji player said.

That’s not necessarily the case, according to the individual who has also studied the impact of local players on the success story of franchises. “If th­at’s the logic, how many Chennai players contributed to their win in 2018?”

The individual, however, did opine that the absence of prominent uncapped Indians set them back. “Run your finger through the squads of every franchise and you will find at least a couple of good uncapped Indian players. RCB? I am not so sure.”

A former Bangalore player adds: “They never use domestic players. How many times have you seen uncapped Indians like (Nitish) Rana or (Prasidh) Krishna given time and space to develop? I can count with one hand and will still have a couple of fingers to spare.”

A coach who has worked with the current owners said he didn’t want to speak for the story. “Whilst I have my own opinions as to what may be happening, I feel it’s not my place to comment on matters as I’m on the outside.”

The owners were yet to respond to queries at the time of going to press.

Over the last 18 or so months, the loyal fans of the side have adopted an unofficial anthem: “Ee sala cup namadhe (this year the cup is ours)”. They started singing that in 2018.

This year, the anthem has already changed: “Next sala cup namadhe”.