Chennai: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s hopes of exorcising a 17-year jinx hinge on their experienced batting unit finding its range when they face familiar foes Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match here on Friday.
The Royal Challengers have beaten the Super Kings only once at Chepauk — in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2008. In the current RCB squad, only star batter Virat Kohli was part of that moment and now he will like to breach the CSK’s fortress for a second time.
But that’s easy to dream. As ever, the Chennai outfit is constructed to win their home matches on a pitch that offers considerable help to spinners.
They have the ever-familiar Ravindra Jadeja and have brought back ‘old boy’ Ravichandran Ashwin through last year’s players’ auction.
The Chennai side has also added Afghanistan left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad too to the squad, and the troika did well against fellow five-time champions Mumbai Indians a few days back.
The triumvirate bowled 11 overs against Mumbai, conceding an appreciable 70 runs for five wickets. The pitch is expected to retain its character for this match as well, and the RCB batters, led by Kohli, will have to lift their game several notches to outwit an experienced bowling unit.
Asked if playing spin is a problem area for the RCB batters, RCB batting coach Dinesh Karthik said: “I don’t think there’s any problem. We played one match, a completely new side to what we had last year. One of the strengths, I believe, is the way we play spin. And as this tournament unfolds, you’ll see it happen. “CSK have three good spinners, no doubt. But we also have very good batters, competent batsmen, who we trust. One of the reasons why we picked them is how well they play spin.”