Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter-keeper Dinesh Karthik feels that the team needs to string together all the best performances together in the ongoing IPL 2023 in order to become unstoppable.
The Faf du Plessis-led side currently has eight points to their name and will play five consecutive away matches in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL). They will start by facing Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Monday, May 1, 2023, at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
Injuries to the RCB’s batting and bowling units have proven detrimental. With Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, and Mohammed Siraj handling the majority of the work, Rajat Patidar and Josh Hazlewood’s absence has been noticeable.
You See The Leaderboard, In The Purple Cap And The Orange Cap, We Are Right Up There: Dinesh Karthik
With the exception of Glenn Maxwell, the poor performance of middle-order hitters has been a burning concern for RCB. They have not yet identified a candidate for position No. 3, and Dinesh Karthik and Suyash Prabhudessai have performed their finishing tasks just mediocrely at best.
Admitting that the next set of games will be challenging, Karthik told RCB Game Day ahead of the LSG clash:
“Some good meetings went around. This is a very interesting part of the tournament, an interesting place in the table as well, the Bangalore ground has been 50-50 for us. I think it has been a hard ground for the bowlers at times, and for the middle-order batters too.
These next few games are going to be very challenging for the batting unit as well, the wickets might help the bowlers a lot more, so we have got to find a way to get the runs that is required for us to defend totals and score the runs the opposition has scored.”
Karthik also said that once all the players step up together, RCB will be unstoppable.
He added: “You see the leaderboard, in the Purple Cap and the Orange Cap, we are right up there not just one or two at times, so this shows how well we have played if we can find a way to string together all those performances as a team, I think we will be unstoppable.“
RCB’s contest against LSG is scheduled to take place at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Monday, May 1.