Chris Gayle, the Universal Boss; Virat Kohli, the undisputed King of modern day Cricket, and AB De Villiers, the bewitching Mr.360. All three of them, on their day, can blast any bowling attack into smithereens. Forget their day, even on an odd day, they can decimate bowling attacks, such unreal and exciting is their talent. Now, what if the three are a part of the same batting lineup? It’ll be a dream lineup, and an unbeatable one at that, you might think. It’s like the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting, arguably the three best batsmen of the era gone by, playing of the same Team back in the late 90s, when all three of them were at the top of their game.

However, what should have been the greatest strength of the Bengaluru based franchise, is now becoming a glaring weakness. Reason? With the three of them aggrandising the RCB batting lineup, the whole of the Team has sort of taken the three for granted; and is too dependant on the Top 3 to deliver the goods. While ABD and Kohli bewitched the fans last year, Gayle had an off-colour tournament last year. This year, again, all three of them have shown a glimpse of their brilliance, but haven’t quite been able to capitalise. Three of the greatest superstars T20 has ever known haven’t been in the pristine touch they normally are. Virat Kohli has a fifty and a thirty, but apart from that, has had a poor run. ABD started with a glittering 89, but hasn’t done a lot after that. Same goes for Gayle, who has showed his big hitting prowess just once, failing in rest of them. With Shane Watson no more the force he used to be, the onus should normally be on the bowlers and the rest of the batsmen to deliver the goods. With no one else unable to create any impact, the RCB is tottering at the bottom end of the table, having won just two of their seven games.

With Gayle scoring just 144 runs of 5 innings, 77 of which have come in one, Kohli scoring 154 off 4 and ABD scoring 145 off 4 innings, 89 off which came in one, the RCB have been struggling for runs and thus haven’t been able to recreate the magic of the last season.

With RCB hosting the in-form SRH today at the Chinnaswamy, they’ll hope the rest of their players stand up to the challenge and turn the beleaguered Club’s fortunes. It’s an almost now-or-never situation of the franchise, as they need to win at least six of their next seven games. It’ll be a difficult ask, but they have to stand up to the challenge. It’ll be a pity to watch RCB crash out of the tournament.