New Delhi: For 17 years, Royal Challengers Bengaluru were IPL’s biggest paradox. They were seen as a side built around big names but often found wanting in the moments that mattered the most.
That has changed over the last two seasons. Last year, they ended the wait and finally became champions. This season, they are currently atop the points table (after Sunday).
The shift has not come from one marquee signing or a dramatic tactical overhaul but from a more measured, evidence-based approach to building squads and preparing for games. Under Director of Cricket Mo Bobat, coach Andy Flower and mentor Dinesh Karthik, data has become central to how RCB operate, without replacing instinct.
“We are data-informed, not data-driven,” Bobat told HT. “The point about big names versus a more even distribution of spend isn’t just about data. It’s about recruitment strategy,” he said. “We wanted to shift our focus to trying to recruit a well-balanced team.”
Data didn’t necessarily dictate those calls, but definitely supported them. That thinking shaped how RCB approached squad construction, auction strategy, post-match reviews and opposition planning. The idea is rather simple—it is aimed at challenging assumptions with evidence.
“As a philosophy, we try to balance human intuition with the data and analytics available to us. Once we finish a game, we do a thorough review. We want to know the evidence from the scorecard and ball-by-ball data and whether that matches our recollections,” Bobat added.
For Karthik, seeing the process from the coaching side after years as a player has been revealing. He says the team is making “a conscious effort to use these metrics to help our players achieve something special.”
“Two years ago, I was playing, and today I’m on this side of the fence. I’m thinking, ‘Wow, it’s so interesting to see so much data and how you use it to upskill the players and the team in general,’” he said in a press conference.
There’s a running joke on X now that teams ought to blindly go after players RCB are bidding for in an auction. Their successful bids included Josh Hazlewood, Krunal Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and their attempt to get batter Shubham Dubey, who eventually went to Rajasthan Royals.
After RCB’s special last-ball win over Mumbai Indians on Sunday, a video of Karthik, in a discussion with Flower, hailing Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the best T20 pacer in India after Jasprit Bumrah before their auction in 2025 has resurfaced. RCB made the solitary bid for the pacer, the winning one at – ₹10.75 crore.
Bhuvneshwar proved to be a perfect fit for RCB—he is the current leading wicket-taker of the season with 21 scalps (after Sunday), at an economy rate of 7.47. Hazlewood and Krunal did click as well.
Some of it is down to skills, instinct and some of it is data. The latter has enabled them to figure out the right fit for the team and Karthik believes the results are already visible. “Last year, we were good enough to beat some very good teams and, in the end, crossed the line.”
A key figure in that transformation has been their analyst Freddie Wilde, whose influence Bobat and Karthik highlighted. Wilde also leads the analyst wing for current ILT20 champions Desert Vipers and The Hundred franchise London Spirit.
“He is probably one of the most talented analysts out there,” Karthik said. “He brings out a lot of interesting information, presents it to us and expects us as a coaching group to understand, dissect and use it appropriately for the team.”
What makes Wilde valuable, Bobat says, is that he understands data’s limits as much as its power. “He’s up there with the best, if not the best, in the world.”
“I say that because you can trust his work, which is really important. He doesn’t think all the evidence lies in the data. He strikes a nice balance between appreciating that there are some things the eyes can see that the numbers can’t yet tell us. He’s got a very realistic perspective on the use of data.”
That blend of evidence and instinct has reshaped RCB’s identity. For a franchise once defined by star names and near misses, data has helped build something sturdier—a team that trusts process over hype, is equipped to handle big moments correctly, and seems more likely to win titles.
