Michael Clarke opens up on why RCB didn’t win an IPL trophy

Royal Challengers Bangalore, one of the most well-known sports teams in the world, has not yet taken home the Indian Premier League (IPL) championship. Despite having one of the best teams in the league on so many occasions, the team has failed to win the championship for 17 consecutive seasons. 

The IPL captain, Virat Kohli, struggled to make an impression despite his reputation as one of the most successful captains in international cricket history. He had access to some of the best cricketers who have ever dominated the T20 scene and beyond at different points in time, including Glenn Maxwell, Shane Watson, Yuvraj Singh, Mitchell Starc, Chris Gayle, and AB de Villiers. He did, as one might anticipate, elicit brilliant performances from everyone, especially himself, but he was unable to get the last push needed to convert muscle promise into numbers in the wins column.

In an interview with Erin Holland for the Beyond23 Cricket podcast, Clarke underlined that winning an IPL championship requires more than just star power. He emphasized that RCB has continuously struggled to come together as a team, especially in pivotal knockout games. Even though Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, and AB de Villiers have all had outstanding individual outings, the team has had trouble remaining composed when it counts most which has cost them not just games but titles.

“Oh RCB. Always so much expectation. Our minds are still thinking about when they had AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli. They had all the Superstars. Generally, in team sport, its not about the superstars. It's about how you gel as a team. And I think RCB, this year, that’s gonna be their challenge to come together as a team.” mentioned Clarke in the podcast.

The new edition of the tournament has meant a new start for the Bengaluru franchise as they let go of most of their players and retained just three of them - Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal. Rajat has been appointed as the new skipper as Faf du Plessis was released. The RCB management has been able to get some good names at mega auctions to fill in the gaps in their squad and would be hoping for a trophy this season.

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