And those batsmen were around when the team scored 49 against Kolkata Knight Riders, 96/9 against Rising Pune Supergiant and 119 against Kings XI Punjab.

The batting needed to improve, despite the big names, and so did the bowling, because more often than not, they conceded more than they scored.

Prior to the 2018 season, Kohli suggested that the problems had been addressed. Chris Woakes, Umesh Yadav, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Tim Southee had been added to the pace attack, and Moeen Ali had been drafted in as well as Washington Sundar, not to forget Yuzvendra Chahal. So the bowling looked solid. As for the batting, Gayle was waylaid and Brendon McCullum brought in.

Chahal agreed. “You can say last match was Mahi (Dhoni) bhai’s game. Even in the Mumbai game, the way Rohit (Sharma, who scored a 52-ball 94 in a 46-run win) batted. He was batting superbly. Last match, both Rayudu and Mahi bhai batted so well, both of them were attacking,” said Chahal.

“Sometimes one guy is attacking and one guy is defending. But last match both were attacking, and they chose the bowlers. I bowled the 14th (13th) over and they didn’t hit me. They took singles. They planned accordingly.”

For Bangalore, the trick then will be in planning better. The batting has gone fine, but the bowling has been far too wasteful. To avoid a repeat of last season, and perhaps even make a surge for their maiden IPL title, things need to change, and change fast. Chahal’s right in that there is time left, but there isn’t a lot of it.