After Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) lifted their first-ever IPL crown last year, their cricket director Mo Bobat delivered a brief message in the post-match glow: “Let’s be like the hunters.” It wasn’t just a motivational line—it sounded like a philosophy for how the franchise wanted to keep moving forward.
Fast forward eleven months, and RCB are once again nearing a final. Speaking at the RCB Labs Innovation Summit last week, Bobat revisited the thought behind that message and explained why he wanted it to mean something beyond celebration.
“Because it was such a long wait for us to win that first title, I didn’t want it to feel like we had climbed our Everest,” Bobat said. “I want it to feel like we’re not holding on to anything. We wanted to keep climbing, keep hunting.”
That mindset helped shape a fresh challenge as the team regrouped for the next campaign. Bobat put it plainly: “Why can’t we be the third team to do it?”
In IPL history, only two franchises had managed to defend their title—Chennai Super Kings in 2011 and Mumbai Indians in 2020. Bobat wanted RCB to believe that back-to-back success wasn’t an impossible dream, but a target their squad could realistically chase.
The confidence behind RCB’s push for titles hasn’t been built in a single season. It traces back to the second half of IPL 2024, when Bobat and Andy Flower began working together as a pair for the first time.
Flower’s arrival brought an impressive record in T20 coaching. He had offers elsewhere, including more money, but the chance to help RCB achieve something they had never managed pulled him in. Yet, eight matches into that first season with RCB, the results looked bleak: the side were at the bottom of the table with just one win from their opening stretch.
CEO Rajesh Menon recalled the uncertainty around that period: “There were questions asked. Do we have the right team? Do we have the right staff? I said the culture is good. The players are good. It’s just a matter of time.”
RCB then surged, winning six matches in a row to reach the playoffs. They fell in the Eliminator, but the turnaround created an identity the group hadn’t clearly shown earlier in the season.
“One of the first things that struck me when I got involved with RCB was a phrase used about the England football team—the shirt weighs heavy,” Bobat explained. “One of the key tasks was really unburdening them as much as you can, taking that weight off them.
“Instead of thinking, ‘when are we going to win this?’, the story changed to: ‘why not us?’ My focus has been on the way we want to play. If you immerse yourself in that, you end up trusting that success becomes inevitable.”
That mid-season transformation began after a hammering. RCB were blown away for 287 by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), then responded by posting 262 in the very next phase of the contesting rhythm. Bobat and Flower quickly concluded that this was the batting blueprint RCB needed. The final step was convincing their icon, and that buy-in—particularly from Virat Kohli—came without too much struggle.
During the first half of IPL 2024, Kohli still functioned mainly as an anchor. After the SRH game, though, he deliberately traded some security for impact. His strike rate rose from 141 across RCB’s initial six matches to 166 for the remainder of the season, effectively setting the tone for the batting style the team carries today.
In the previous IPL season, Kohli scored 657 runs at a strike rate just below 150. This year, he has made 557 runs at close to 164—his best strike rate in an IPL campaign so far. Just as importantly, RCB have won every one of the seven matches in which he has batted beyond the powerplay.
Kohli’s reinvention has also influenced the rest of the batting unit. Devdutt Padikkal, batting at No. 3, stands out as the clearest example of that ripple effect.
When RCB signed Padikkal at the mega auction in November 2024, he arrived after a frustrating run with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), where he managed 38 runs across seven innings. He even admitted at the time that he wasn’t sure whether franchises still saw him as a genuine T20 option.
Back then, Padikkal was viewed as a backup. RCB had pushed hard to secure Venkatesh Iyer—going up to INR 23 crore—but Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) edged them out. Looking back, missing out on Venkatesh may have helped shape the squad that RCB have developed into what it is now.
For roughly the same money RCB had been willing to spend on a single player, they brought in Josh Hazlewood (INR 12.50 crore), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (INR 10.75 crore) and Padikkal (INR 2 crore). Those three names have since become central to their plans.
Before the 2025 season, RCB saw in Padikkal a left-handed batter who could hit from the start. As he put it, “That has been the role for the last two years. I have to keep the momentum in the powerplay. You cannot afford to slow down after a wicket.”
His IPL approach changed dramatically last season. After striking at only 123 across his IPL career up to 2025, he embraced a far more aggressive role in 2025, scoring at a rate above 150 before an injury cut his campaign short. This year has taken the leap even further: he has accumulated 433 runs at a strike rate close to 172—his most influential IPL season yet.
Padikkal credited the faith shown by the team management, along with off-season work led by Dinesh Karthik, the batting mentor. “Because it’s such a major shift, it’s very easy to accept maybe that’s not your game,” Padikkal said. “But the conversations were mainly about them giving me the belief that I’m capable of doing that. I’m not really trying to focus on strike rate. It’s about making sure I have intent from ball one.”
Phil Salt and Rajat Patidar, the other two batters in the top order, already had roles that fit the same direction. Salt had been highly effective in setting the tone during KKR’s title run in 2024, while Patidar was known as the spin-destroying option in the lineup.
The main question about Patidar was whether he could keep delivering what RCB wanted without the weight of captaincy affecting his rhythm. If IPL 2025 provided answers, this season has effectively reinforced the idea—he has made close to 400 runs this year at a strike rate of 184.
Where Faf du Plessis, his predecessor, was heavily involved in nearly everything—from auction planning to team culture—Patidar has led in a different way. “Rajat’s quite a unique character,” Bobat said. “I don’t know anyone quite like him.”
Bobat described Patidar as more trusting and more hands-off away from the field. Patidar prefers to focus almost entirely on cricket itself: tactics, bowling changes, and decision-making during matches.
“He wants to have an input on the team that takes the field,” Bobat said, “and then he thinks that when he crosses the line, that’s when his job starts.”
That level of trust sits at the core of how this RCB side functions. Patidar backs the management to build the environment around him, while the management backs him to control the match once the contest begins.
“He’s got a stronger sense of how he wants the team to play,” Bobat added. “He is certainly becoming an even better decision-maker out in the middle when it comes to tactics and bowling changes.”
RCB have also built a more robust support structure around their captain. Jitesh Sharma has stepped up as a reliable sounding board and deputy, while Krunal Pandya has contributed across phases with both bat and ball. No contribution has been more dramatic than his match-winning 73 this season against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Raipur, where cramps and exhaustion threatened his momentum.
Krunal was among RCB’s biggest match-winners in 2025, and the version that has arrived in 2026 has shown clear improvement—particularly in how he uses variations, bouncers and different angles across phases.
Since the start of IPL 2025, Krunal has bowled an enormous number of deliveries to left-handed batters compared to other left-arm finger spinners, and he has also taken more wickets against them. He has managed this while keeping his economy below 10. His victims include Priyansh Arya, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Shimron Hetmyer.
Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar—who once caused RCB heartbreak in the 2016 final while playing for SRH—is now the bowling leader in their camp. This season, his performances have even revived chatter about a potential return to India contention at the age of 36.
Bobat also pointed to culture as the foundation for the turnaround.
“When an organisation hasn’t achieved its main goal for 17 years, you have to ask why,” he said. “And you have to have the humility to look at your own failings.
“RCB had a history of always having a small number of icon players, and the performance of the team was kind of dependent on those few players doing well. We wanted a more balanced spread of talent and a more balanced spread of experience, so we could give ourselves a better chance of building a championship-winning team.”
That approach has shown up strongly in the franchise’s auction decisions.
While teams such as MI, CSK and SRH retained nearly INR 75 crore worth of proven match-winners ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction, RCB opted for a partial reset. They retained only two match-winners—Kohli and Patidar—for a combined INR 32 crore (Yash Dayal was the third retained player). The move gave them a flexibility other franchises didn’t have.
Their four biggest investments—Hazlewood (INR 12.50 crore), Salt (INR 11.50 crore), Jitesh (INR 11 crore) and Bhuvneshwar (INR 10.75 crore)—totalled INR 45.75 crore. Even after that, RCB still had enough space to add proven performers such as Krunal, Tim David and Padikkal.
In earlier cycles, RCB often ended up top-heavy, relying on a handful of stars while surrounding them with back-up options that lacked experience. For 2025 and into IPL 2026, RCB prioritised distributing established quality throughout the playing group. They also eventually had a chance to bring in Venkatesh as a backup batter for INR 7 crore—slightly less than what they had been prepared to spend on him in 2025.
Venkatesh spent large parts of the IPL 2026 campaign outside the XI because RCB didn’t disrupt a settled combination. He came in twice earlier in the season as an impact player, but he had to wait until the 13th match to break through consistently.
When Patidar was sidelined due to injury, Venkatesh made the opportunity count. He struck an unbeaten 73 off 40 balls in RCB’s 23-run win over Punjab Kings (PBKS). In their final league game, he returned to the top order after Jacob Bethell was injured and scored 44 from 19 deliveries during RCB’s chase of 256. RCB did not even attempt the chase in that scenario; instead, they chose to focus on net run-rate to secure first place at the top of the table.
“RCB is the champion side,” Venkatesh said. “We’re defending champions. So to tinker with a combination that has won you a championship isn’t always the smartest move. As someone who places the team above everything else, it’s my duty to adhere to the environment.”
Still, even while waiting for his moments, he said the management stayed transparent about expectations and roles. “Mo, Andy and DK have been amazing when it comes to conversations about what my role in the team is. They’ve given me absolute clarity.”
That clarity and communication have helped RCB absorb late disruptions, even when circumstances force changes. One such example was their decision to withdraw Dayal from the current season due to legal matters.
Dayal had been a key part of the three-pronged pace attack during their title-winning campaign, but with him kept under contract, RCB effectively had to operate with reduced resources. Hazlewood missing the opening phase could have created issues, but RCB’s auction pick Jacob Duffy stepped in. In his first game, he took 3 for 22 and was named Player of the Match against SRH.
Duffy hasn’t played every match since Hazlewood returned, but he has been used with tactical intent. In the league match at Dharamsala against PBKS, for instance, RCB leaned toward pace and bowling that grips off the deck—conditions where those skills have historically been more valuable than spin.
Similarly, Rasikh Salam—signed last year as a backup for Dayal—has featured in ten matches and has already exceeded Dayal’s wicket tally from the previous season. The franchise invested in Salam’s training camps, and Krunal even supported a move for him from Jammu & Kashmir to Baroda to expand the opportunities available to him.
RCB’s flexibility hasn’t only been about personnel and tactics. Over the past two seasons, they also had to rethink one of the oldest ideas in the IPL: that sustained success requires dominance at home.
Last season, they won just two games at home but were outstanding away from Bengaluru, collecting nine victories outside their home ground. This year presented a different challenge. Due to schedule shifts, RCB played only five league matches at Chinnaswamy, with two fixtures labelled “home” being moved to Raipur—a venue that had not hosted IPL cricket since 2015.
Before their match against MI, RCB arrived straight after a flight, while MI had already trained twice at Raipur. RCB went further by studying scorecards from the Chhattisgarh Premier League to gauge how surfaces behave.
Bobat admitted that when he first arrived at RCB, he treated Chinnaswamy as simply a high-scoring ground where teams “fill their boots.” It took him time to understand that home advantage had often been elusive for the franchise.
“A lot of people said if you’re not dominant at home, you won’t win the IPL,” he said. “Part of me thought, well, let’s just win all our away games then.”
In many ways, that became the guiding point. RCB stopped fixating on where their wins came from and instead focused on learning conditions faster, adjusting better, and building a side capable of winning through different methods.
“You’ve got to be humble enough to know when you’re not doing well,” Bobat said. “We weren’t playing well enough at home initially. But because we were honest in how we reviewed things, we worked out how we wanted to bowl here, what type of bowlers succeed here and how we wanted to bat.”
The results have followed. This season, RCB have won six of their seven matches at home, including the two in Raipur, and they have continued to adapt in unfamiliar settings such as Dharamsala—where the Himalayas stand close in the background and Mount Everest feels far more reachable than it once did from Bengaluru.
When a franchise spends a generation waiting for a trophy, the first spark of glory can sometimes become the finish line. Almost a year later, the hunters are clearly not done.
