Courtesy: BCCI/IPL/RCB
Ahead of the highly anticipated return of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, the director of cricket of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Mo Bobat, addressed the media prior to taking on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday, May 18. When Mo Bobat was asked about the injury to Devdutt Padikkal, which has left RCB with limited left-handed options in their batting order in comparison to right handers, he ruled out the worries around the matter with an in-depth assessment.
Notably, the unfortunate injury to Devdutt Padikkal, the left-handed batter, who was playing quite well for RCB at number three in the order, has meant that the team management had to seek a replacement, and they picked right-handed Mayank Agarwal. Furthermore, with opener Phil Salt regaining full fitness after recovering from an illness, the right-handed batter is expected to replace his countryman and left-handed Jacob Bethell in the RCB playing XI.
I don't worry that much about right-hand-left-hand combinations: Mo Bobat
In such a scenario, only Krunal Pandya will end up being the recognised left-handed batting option for RCB in the order, leaving them without the best possible chance to utilise the left-right batting combination, in regards to taking advantage of the indifferent sizes of the ground and taking toll on the opposition bowling plans. But, when Mo Bobat was questioned about it, he remarked, as per Cricbuzz, “Yeah, my own personal philosophy is I don't worry that much about right-hand-left-hand combinations. I know different teams do that differently.”
“I actually think that since we've had the impact player rule and every team has six or seven bowlers, it almost doesn't matter if you've got [a] right-hand-left-hand [pair], they just change the bowling combination. So I think in an 11 versus 11 line-up, sometimes having that left-hander in your back order can mean that you can put one of their bowlers under pressure. I see that less as a thing now,” he added.
Moreover, RCB are currently in second place in the IPL 2025 points table with 16 points in 11 matches, just behind Gujarat Titans (GT) on net run rate (NRR).
