IPL 2017: 5 things that went wrong for Royal Challengers Bangalore this season

#2 Nature of the wicket at the Chinnaswamy stadium

Royal Challengers Bangalore is a team that is known to win matches by outscoring the opposition, thanks to their batting might and their not-so-strong bowling unit. Their home ground, Chinnaswamy stadium, is also a high scoring ground as the average first innings score at the venue in the 2016 edition was 197.

The wicket has been often termed as a graveyard for the bowlers and with small boundaries, the venue is a paradise for any batsman.

This season, the wicket is behaving in an unusual manner as the batsmen are struggling to score runs (not when Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn took the RCB bowlers to the cleaners). In the 2016 IPL, the average first innings score in a 20-over game at the venue was 195 while the average score (irrespective of the innings) was 183.

Also in the last four seasons, RCB had an average score of 173 at their home ground. However, this year, they failed to score 160 in even a single innings, their highest score at home being 158/6 in their last game against Kolkata Knight Riders.

With RCB relying a lot on their batting, the wicket at their home ground should have assisted them as Kohli and co. would have bulldozed the opposition with their strong batting line-up instead of putting their faith on their bowling unit.