Rahul Dravid reveals the reason behind CSK's success and RCB's failure in IPL

Rahul Dravid is one of the legends of the game and his opinion is respected all across the globe. Since retirement from international cricket, Dravid has been involved in helping the young generation of budding cricketers in India. He coached the Indian under-19 side to a world cup win in 2018. Currently, he is the director of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Recently, Dravid analysed and talked about reasons why Royal Challengers Bangalore haven’t been successful in IPL yet. The former Indian captain compared the franchise with Chennai Super Kings, who have been the most successful team in IPL. His analyzation was published in a book titled ‘Cricket 2.0- Inside the T20 revolution’ written by Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde.

Dravid pointed out that the owners of Chennai Super King were involved in managing a cricket team before they entered the IPL. “When they got into the IPL, Chennai probably had an advantage over a lot of other franchises because their owners, India Cements, were already in the business of running cricket teams,” Dravid said quoted by Hindustan Times.

“CSK was just the most high-profile team that they ran. So in a sense, they’ve always had people on the ground and their scouting system was probably better right at the start than any other team,” he further added.

Dravid went on to point out that RCB has not been good with the auctions and selecting players. “I think they’ve been very poor with selections and auctions. Bangalore has never balanced their team very well,” observed Dravid. “They had their best year when they had a bowler like Mitchell Starc who was able to close out games for them. But they kept going out and picking gun batsmen.”

Dravid further noted that CSK’s success has been based on the fact that they have had a good bowling unit. “That’s where Chennai has always been successful because they’ve often had stronger bowling than Bangalore,” said the right-hander.

‘Poor auctions and players selection’: Rahul Dravid on RCB

The veteran also said that RCB has not been doing great in when it comes to picking the right combination for the side going into an IPL. “For RCB, you always felt they will be chasing a gun death bowler. Then the first thing you realise is they’ve spent 15 crores on Yuvraj Singh and you think, ‘Oh, sh*t! They aren’t in the market for that!’ and by the time a death bowler comes round they won’t be able to spend any money so we can outbid them.”

Dravid emphasized on the fact that CSK has a core of players who have regularly represented the franchise. Players such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo have stuck around the side and helped in the growth and success of the team.

“There are a lot of foreign players available for four slots. But there are a limited number of quality Indian players available, and the fact that CSK has been able to get some of the best guys have meant that they have always had that core,” Dravid said.

Bangalore franchise has had one of the best teams over the years with players such as Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle but they haven’t been able to win a single season of IPL.