Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa has dissected Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s inability to win the IPL ever since its inception in 2008, suggesting the franchise to “exercise faith” in players.

Speaking on the TRS podcast, Uthappa assessed that Bengaluru’s experience is concentrated at the top of their batting line-up, and how that has been detrimental to their chances of winning the IPL trophy.

“All their experience is at the top. Where is the experience when you need it at the crunch moments? Where is the experience when you need to sacrifice your agendas for the greater good of the team?” Uthappa questioned.

Uthappa suggested that the playing conditions on offer for the touring sides at the M.Chinnaswamy stadium should be made tougher to swing results in the home team’s favour. He cited the example of the Kolkata Knight Riders preparing spin-friendly home pitches during their successful IPL 2014 campaign to suit their spin-dominated bowling line-up.

“Everybody knows Bengaluru is the second-highest [cricket stadium] altitude-wise after Johannesburg at 850 metres above sea level. So, to hit a ball in the air, it stays hit. It’s a known fact. All the cricketers know. It’s a great wicket to bat on, a small ground. So how do you make this difficult to score runs?”

It is worth a mention that while situated at a high altitude, the Chinnaswamy is not the second-highest cricket stadium in the world.

“How did KKR win it in 2014? They made it so hard for visiting teams to score runs on there [Eden Gardens]. They built their teams around the conditions of the ground, Spinners came into play. Who were the spinners at that time? Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Shakib Al Hasan, Kuldeep Yadav – all of these guys.

“Now, if RCB does something simple as having the experience where they need to have it, creating conditions difficult for visiting teams to score. When it’s hard for a visiting team to come out and win. They’ll have the results much more in their favour.

“See the science of winning the IPL is you have seven [home] games, and you have to win five out of seven. You have seven games away. Try and win three-four games out of there. Eight to nine wins and you qualify. Towards the back end of the tournament, anything can happen. It’s unpredictable. The only predictability comes if you are playing in your home venue or away venue.”

When asked what Uthappa would do if he got the charge of RCB, he argued about going “through hell and high water” to bring back Yuzvendra Chahal to the team. He even talked about bringing back Harshal Patel and emphasised on preparing a Chinnaswamy pitch conducive to spin.

“First, I would beg Yuzi to come back. I would go through hell and high water to bring him back from Rajasthan Royals and make amends with him. I would maybe even bring Harshal Patel back and prepare wickets that are conducive for bowlers to succeed,” Uthappa revealed.

Chahal, who has the most wickets (199) in the league’s history, represented RCB from 2014 to 2021 and was released ahead of the 2022 mega-auction, where Rajasthan picked him up. Chahal voiced his disappointment, for he did not even “receive any phone call” from RCB. Meanwhile, Harshal, who won the Purple Cap in 2021 with 32 wickets, recently parted ways with the franchise and currently plays for the Punjab Kings.

He goes on to name a list of players whom Bengaluru haven’t retained over the years, including himself. He accused them of creating “insecurity” in the team. Uthappa was a part of RCB in 2009 and 2010.

“Look at the calibre of batters you have. You have Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik. They have had such great batters who have come through the ranks. AB de Villiers played for them. Chris Gayle, Travis Head and Shane Watson played for them. And they let them go. These are foreigners I am talking about. Heinrich Klassen played for them and they let them go as well.

“Manish Pandey, myself, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal – all local boys and let all of them go. It tells you a story,” Uthappa said. “Exercise faith. They don’t exercise security. Look at the number of players who have played for RCB in this IPL. I think already 20 players have played and it’s a squad of 25. You create insecurity in a group, they go out there for survival.”

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