Royal Challengers Bangalore have not been upto the mark in this year’s IPL and surprisigly it has been their batting which has let them down. Considering the battting power they possess, it is hard to digest that. It will be worth watching if they can leave their failure behind and start with a new story in the Indian leg of the IPL.
But for the past 3 – 4 years, Bangalore has not been able to bat the same way as they have done on their home ground at Bangalore. It is worth noting that Bangalore is a batting paradise wicket and high scores are expected there but the other main reason seems to be the failure of Chris Gayle outside Bangalore.
1: Off Spinners: While he has been a murderer of leg spinners and left armers, he has struggled a lot against off spinners. With the ball going away from him, he has not been able to impart enough power into the shot. This has been exploited by all the teams, be it in the IPL or at the International teams. His struggle against Hafeez was well seen in the World Cup .Captains have preferred to open with off spinners against him, and even with part timers if they don’t have a main pff spinner in the line up. But perhaps it was Dhoni, who started this trend with Ashwin.
At Bangalore, with no assistance with the wicket, he can afford to hit the off spinners along the line , with much success. Grounds at Mumbai and Punjab too offer such such freedom to him , but apart from these tracks , he has struggled in the past. In the last IPL, he averaged in single digits at these venues.
2: Swinging new Ball : With the new ball, he has looked comfortable against pace but not against the moving ball. In his record breaking 175 against Pune Warriors, he was severe against every one but could not do anything significant against Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The problem multiplies with the ball leaving him and getting caught behind becomes a common scene then.
3: Fitness : This Carribean giant is yet to be fully fit for the tournament and with the amount of weight he possess, he needs to be concentrating more on it. The way he runs between the wickets just puts pressure on the batsman batting along side with him on the other end. His fielding standards are not high, when you compare it with the other Carribeans and he is seen giving away the easy singles.
4: Dead-bat approach: Gayle has been guilty of scoring too slowly at the start, or not even trying to score at the start. This leads the team into trouble if he gets out after a slow start because batsmen at the other end, might not capable of taking the attack like Chris Gayle
