The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) faced their third defeat in five games in the IPL 2023 encounter against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Monday. While they had got off to a positive start with a dominant win over the Mumbai Indians, they then faced back-to-back defeats in games against the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Lucknow Super Giants.
Bangalore came back with a win over the Delhi Capitals in their next match before the eight-run loss to Chennai on Monday. The result means the Faf du Plessis-led side currently find themselves at the seventh place on the points table with a net run rate of -0.318. With yet another season slipping away from their hands, former RCB star and one of India's all-time greats Zaheer Khan has shared his views on what he thinks is going wrong for Bangalore
The former left-arm speedster reckoned that Bangalore seems to be missing what wicketekeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik did for them in the last season. While Karthik finished many a matches for them last season on whis way to a comeback to the national team in the T20 setup, this year he has failed to recreate the same magic.
"The way Faf and Max batted, especially with Virat Kohli getting dismissed early, we understand the pressure they were under. In the middle order or to finish, if Dinesh Karthik cannot perform like the way he used to play previously, then these issues will persist all season long as the rest of them are inexperienced," Khan told Jio Cinema as quoted by Cricktracker.
Bangalore will play their next match against the Punjab Kings on April 20 (Thursday) which will be a 03:30 pm (IST) start at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. Punjab, led by Shikhar Dhawan, has 3 wins and 2 defeats, in their five matches.