Former Indian cricketer Varun Aaron stated following RCB’s resounding victory that the team’s success has been largely down to several individuals stepping up at different times during the season. The cricket player-turned-expert pointed out that players like Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Devdutt Padikkal, and others had played important knocks under duress in IPL 2025, in contrast to past editions when Virat Kohli and a few other batsmen did the most of the scoring.
On Thursday, May 29, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Qualifier 1 in New Chandigarh, advancing to the Indian Premier League (IPL) Finals for the fourth time.
In 14.1 overs, the Rajat Patidar-led team bowled PBKS out for 101, with three-fors from Suyash Sharma and Josh Hazlewood. In response, Phil Salt helped his team win in 10 overs with eight wickets in the bank after smashing an undefeated 56 off 27 balls. While playing for RCB, Suyash received his first Player of the Match honour.
Ultimately, it must be attributed to eight players who were named man of the match during the season. I would argue that a few large batters did the most of the work because RCB has always been dominated by a select group of players. However, there were constant discussions regarding who the top Indian run scorer is after Virat Kohli. Rahul Dravid was in charge until last year.
“That has changed this year,” Varun Aaron told ESPNcricinfo.
“Phil Salt entered the game and played a really significant hand. During the first half, Devdutt Padikkal played a crucial role. Someone like Jitesh Sharma is now taking the stage. Even if he didn’t score many runs in the last game, Rajat Patidar is still looking good. There are indications, and Tim David then enters and performs a great performance. A remarkable innings, Romario Shepherd. So, when you really think about it, there are a lot of RCB situations that immediately spring to mind where, you know what, everyone helped out at various points when they were struggling,” Varun Aaron continued.
This season, the Bengaluru-based team has depended on Suyash and Krunal Pandya as spinners. The latter made an impression on Thursday, even if the former has won a couple games with his cunning bowling.
Aaron claimed that although the Bengaluru-based team might not have the league’s top spin-bowling assault, the Krunal-Suyash combination has done better than the other spinners.
Even if RCB’s spin attack isn’t the finest, their spinners have performed better than everyone else. The former pacer remarked, “It’s just a story of guys stepping up more than they have stepped up before.”
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