The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team, led by Smriti Mandhana, suffered their third straight loss on Wednesday as they lost to Gujarat Giants by 11 runs in a Women’s Premier League (WPL) match.
RCB WPL 2023 inaugural campaign is not successful, as fans were expecting. RCB has very good players in their squad, but they are not performing well as a team.
Parthiv Patel, a former India men’s cricket wicketkeeper-batsman, says that Bangalore’s foreign players Ellyse Perry, Heather Knight, Sophie Devine, and Megan Schutt have yet to provide match-winning performances in the league.
“The biggest concern for RCB is their overseas stars are not performing. They have invested heavily in their overseas players and they have not performed. Another thing is, whoever gets a start, should try to get a big one, which is something ailing in RCB’s camp,” said Patel while replying to a question.
RCB will bounce back at some stage
The RCB women’s team has been compared to their male IPL counterparts in social media discussions since both teams are great on paper but fall short when playing as a team, but Patel believes the team still has it in them to recover from their recent losses.
“Having said that, if you look at their names on the side, they can bounce back and there is no doubt about it. I have no doubt that they will bounce back at some stage in the tournament. We have seen this in the men’s IPL before; where teams do not start that well, but they do go on to win the tournament and RCB has that potential.”
Gujarat Giants probably unlucky to lose
The late fireworks from Grace Harris, though, caused Gujarat to lose to the UP Warriorz despite fast-bowling all-rounder Kim Garth’s five-fer. Patel believes Gujarat was unlucky to lose and that the team needs to perform as a unit, especially because it is unknown whether the injured captain Beth Mooney would be available for the remainder of the competition.
“Regarding Gujarat Giants, I thought they did really well and were probably unlucky to lose their last game to UP Warriorz. But I wouldn’t say unlucky as the way Grace Harris played that knock (in Sunday’s game), you hardly see 53 (58) runs being scored in the last three overs. Another thing is, losing out on their captain is a big blow.”
“They were actually banking a lot on Beth Mooney, but it’s something which they will have to deal with and try to play as a team. They are not the team with superstars, so I think it is important for them, including the young Indian contingent, to contribute more which will make those little differences for Gujarat Giants.”
Also Read: IPL 2023: This Youngster Will Be A Game-changer In Rishabh Pant’s Absence, Names Delhi Capitals CEO
