Bengaluru, April 17: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar believes the M Chinnaswamy Stadium is no longer playing like the batting paradise it once was.
Speaking ahead of RCB’s upcoming IPL 2025 clash against Punjab Kings on Friday, the veteran seamer admitted that the Bengaluru surface has shown inconsistent behaviour this season, leaving even home teams like RCB scratching their heads.
“Our preparation is as usual, nothing different. What we do for any opposition on any ground, it is going to be the same. We know the Chinnaswamy is known for batting, but if you look at the wicket, it is not the same as what it used to be. I don’t know the reason, but yes, whether we bowl or bat first, we’ll look at the first few overs and then see how the wicket plays, and then we will decide how to approach things accordingly.”
RCB have had a solid start to their campaign with four wins in six matches. However, both their defeats — against Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals — came at home, where they failed to defend below-par totals. In both games, the first innings scores hovered below 170, and bowlers from visiting sides made better use of the surface than the RCB attack, which was unusually ineffective in those encounters.
This isn’t the first time concerns have been raised about the Chinnaswamy pitch this season. RCB mentor Dinesh Karthik had earlier expressed that the slow, sticky nature of the surface was hurting their power-packed batting line-up.
Despite the surface not living up to its high-scoring reputation, RCB’s pace battery, led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Australia’s Josh Hazlewood, has managed to keep things steady. Hazlewood has taken nine wickets in six matches at an average of 21 and an economy rate of 8.65, forming a reliable partnership with the Indian veteran.
“The role cannot be defined before the match. Normally, if you look at our bowling, Hazlewood and I both bowl with the new ball, and both bowl at the death. So it’s a pretty standard role we have, but it keeps changing from match to match. It depends on how we bowl in the first few overs, how the team is batting, and so on. But yes, being experienced bowlers, we both want to take wickets and want to do well for the team.”
Praising Hazlewood’s temperament, Bhuvneshwar added, “He has been very good. The best thing is that he has been calm. That’s what we need, especially in this format, because when you lose a match, the easy thing is to panic, and that’s what he hasn’t done. We lost two matches, but he was the same whether we won or lost.” (PTI)
