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Venkatesh Prasad believes RCB must pick the best 11 ‘on form’ to win their first IPL trophy.
Virat Kohli. (BCCI Photo)
Former India coach and Karnataka superstar Venkatesh Prasad believes Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) need to pick the best 11 ‘on form’ and do ‘a lot more’ to win their first IPL trophy.
RCB are one of the three original IPL teams to have not won the title yet. They hold the record for playing the most number of IPL finals – three – without winning the trophy. Some of the greats of the game have represented and coached them and but haven’t been able to break the curse of the final step.
Venkatesh was asked in his Twitter (now X) ask-me-anything (AMA) session about his opinion on how RCB can finally win the IPL.
He replied, “Play the best 11 according to form and a lot more”
Last year, RCB went on one of their best runs, recovering from being in the bottom two of the points table at the halfway stage of the season to qualifying at number four. It was another show of the quality and character of the team.
However, once again, the final huddles halted the dream run as Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat them in a closely contested Eliminator.
Who’ll be RCB’s IPL 2025 captain?
Now, ahead of the 2025 season, RCB are one of the few teams to have not confirmed their captains. They released Faf du Plessis ahead of the auction last year and didn’t sign an obvious captaincy replacement.
There has been widespread speculation that Virat Kohli might be ready to take over again. Head coach Andy Flower was asked the question earlier this year but he remained non-committal.
“Well, you’re going to have to wait for the outcome. It’s a new era that we are going into, the start of a three-year cycle, and I’m sure the anticipation will be good for you,” Flower was quoted by SportsTak ahead of the third season of the ILT20, where he’s coaching the Gulf Giants. “You can ask me as often as you like, but that communication has not happened yet,” he clarified.
RCB Squad For IPL 2025: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chikara, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Manoj Bhandage, Liam Livingstone, Krunal Pandya, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Phil Salt, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Rasikh Dar, Nuwan Thushara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma and Mohit Rathee