Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) draws a lot of criticism for not using their players properly and playing them out of position most of the time.
It has happened quite often in the IPL that a player, who has not been able to do well for RCB, has done superbly well when he has gone to some other franchise.
Here are the 4 players whose IPL career peaked after they left RCB –
#1 KL Rahul:
KL Rahul actually performed decently for RCB, but they didn’t use him at his preferred batting position. He is a natural opener who likes batting at the top of the order, but at RCB he was mostly batting at no. 4 or even below that.
When Rahul left RCB and went to Kings XI Punjab, his efficiency as an IPL batsman increased because he got the opportunity to open the batting at KXIP.
Rahul has, so far, played 28 matches for KXIP and has scored 1252 runs at an average of more than 54.
#2 Shane Watson:
Shane Watson has played for three IPL franchises so far – Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings. While Watson’s average for RR and CSK is more than 30, his batting average for RCB is only 13.
Watson, just like Rahul, has also mostly opened the batting in T20 cricket throughout his career, but he was slotted in the middle order at RCB and he couldn’t contribute as much with the bat in the middle order as he could have if he was used as an opener.
#3 Dinesh Karthik:
Dinesh Karthik, who is one of the most dynamic T20 middle order batsmen in India, played 16 games for RCB and scored only 141 runs at an average of 12.82.
Since leaving RCB, Karthik has played for Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively. While he has averaged 30.35 for the Lions, his average for the Knight Riders is 41.72 which clearly suggests his IPL career peaked after leaving RCB.
#4 Robin Uthappa:
Robin Uthappa was again someone who returned much better numbers with the bat when he played for Kolkata Knight Riders than when he played for RCB.
Uthappa was a bit of a floater in the RCB line-up and didn’t have a fixed batting position. While at KKR, he had a well defined role.
Uthappa used to bat at no. 3 or no. 4 for KKR and was entrusted with the job of maintaining the tempo of the innings through the middle overs. The 34-year old scored more than 2000 runs for KKR and won the orange cap as well, in IPL 2014.
