Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan talked about the IPL 2021 campaign of Royal Challengers Bangalore and how they were one of the favourites to win the title.
RCB led by Virat Kohli, enjoyed a dream run in the now-suspended 14th edition of the league. They started the campaign with a victory over the defending champions Mumbai Indians in the opening match. At the halfway stage of the league, RCB had managed to win five out of seven games and were looking primed to end their drought for the championship.
However, the IPL had to be postponed due to the breach in the bio-secure bubble, which saw multiple Covid-19 cases emerge from four IPL franchises. Former Indian all-rounder, Irfan Pathan believes that the suspension of the tournament will hurt the RCB fans most. Pathan dissected the performance of RCB and reckoned the power-hitters, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers were in great form, and the team was looking really good to finally break the championship curse.
“Where the tournament has stopped, the RCB fans will be a little disappointed because AB de Villiers was in good form, Maxwell was in good form, the team was doing very well, the bowling was very good,”
Irfan Pathan told Star Sports.
“It was about to be ‘Ee Sala Cup Namde’ for them, at least from the fan’s perspective, so it is expected that they will be a little disappointed but it has been a good year for them till now,”
he added.
The Baroda-born all-rounder lauded the skipper Kohli and RCB’s Director of Cricket Mike Hesson for their auction strategy and tactics during the season. Irfan felt that Kohli, the captain was impressive and should be happier than Kohli the batsman.
“If you talk about this season, Virat Kohli the captain will be happier than Virat Kohli the batsman. The way the entire team has responded, the way the combination of Virat Kohli and Mike Hesson has worked, and the hard work they put in for the auction.”
Pathan added.
RCB had bought Glenn Maxwell for a massive price in the auction and were heavily criticised for it. They had also brought Harshal Patel and Daniel Sams in the team through the trades. Both Maxwell and Harshal Patel were the main reasons for RCB’s success.
