- NEW DELHI — Sanjay Bangar, the former coach of Royal Challengers Bengaluru,
said the franchise leaning on picking experienced players brought resilience
and better decision-making under pressure, which in turn made the difference in
the side winning IPL 2025.
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- At the Narendra Modi Stadium on Tuesday night, RCB beat
Punjab Kings by six runs in the final to finally win a long-awaited IPL title
for the first time. It also meant that the talismanic Virat Kohli finally
became an IPL winner after losing three previous finals in 2009, 2011 and 2016
respectively.
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- Ahead of the auction for 2025 season, apart from
retaining Kohli, captain Rajat Patidar and pacer Yash Dayal, RCB had brought in
Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Phil Salt, Josh Hazlewood,
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Liam Livingstone, and Tim David among others, which meant
they brought in much-needed international experience and covered all bases for
the franchise to finally win the championship.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s captain Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli and others pose for photographers with the championship trophy during the presentation ceremony of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 final, at the Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad, Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
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- “This season, RCB leaned more on experience. In previous
years, we saw a focus on younger, developing talent—players who hadn’t quite
mature into finished products. But this time, the Indian core of the squad was
made up of players who had touched the international stage, even if they hadn’t
had long runs there, such as Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma, Yash Dayal, and
Rajat Patidar.
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- “They've all had brushes with international cricket—some
even played Tests. That kind of exposure brings resilience and better
decision-making under pressure. When you combine those players with four
overseas stars, it results in a team where 9 or 10 members have
international-level experience. That drastically reduces the inexperience
factor, and it shows in on-field decisions that match the demands of the game.