Bangalore Royal Challengers : What went wrong ?

The IPL has had a great first season and the four best teams have proceeded to the semi finals. Teams like the Rajasthan Royals and the Kings XI Punjab have been great to watch, whereas teams like the Deccan Chargers and the Royal Challengers Bangalore have been dismal.

Here we will take a look at the team from Bangalore.

The Royal Challengers are a great team on paper. Players such as Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Anil Kumble and Mark Boucher represent them. Moreover, they have a wealth of young talent in Ross Taylor, Virat Kohli and Sreevats Goswami. Before the start of the IPL, this team was touted as one of the favourites. The reality though, has been grim.

Rahul Dravid's side has finished second from the bottom, something that their fans had not even thought of at the start. Their first match was a disaster, Brendon McCullum's brilliant innings of 158 absolutely tearing the bowling apart. Zaheer Khan's bowling looked too bad for a pacer who takes the new ball for his country. Their second match was a better result, with a win over the Mumbai Indians. However, they failed to carry that momentum forward.

Inconsistency has been the key word for this side. The players have been great individually but hardly ever have they played like a team. Rahul Dravid has not looked comfortable as captain, but having said that, he has had some great innings in the latter part of the tournament.

The team's owner, Vijay Mallya, has also played a big part in this downfall. Instead of supporting his team in a crisis, he fired the CEO and openly criticised the team selection made by the captain, not something that would lift the team's spirit. The result of this was a broken side completely devoid of confidence.

Also, the departure of certain players at a crucial time has played a part in some of the poor results. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Nathan Bracken and an in-form Ross Taylor all left when the team needed them. The failure of Jacques Kallis and Misbah-ul-Haq has also been unfortunate for the Royal Challengers.

Praveen Kumar and Anil Kumar have both been very uneconomical. Zaheer Khan has not justified his inclusion in Wisden's top five players of the year. In fact, Dale Steyn has been the only good bowler in the side.

Nonetheless, Bangalore have also had some bright spots in the tourney. The likes of Ross Taylor and Sreevats Goswami have been great with the bat. Rahul Dravid also looked like an in form batsman in the second half of the tournament.

What really was the cause for this monumental failure is still not clear. It seems that the inability of Bangalore to perform as a team has been the main cause. Fingers have also been pointed at the management, the coach and the team selection.

The first season of the IPL has been one to forget for the Royal Challengers. However, things can only get better from here on.