If one asks about the most loved and most popular teams of IPL, the obvious answer comes to be Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. While MI and CSK enjoy the fandom because of being the most successful teams with 5 trophies each, RCB is a different story altogether. The franchise has not won any of the titles, and yet it enjoys one of the most loyal fanbases to exist. The fans pour their heart and soul in the team, in spite of their team not clinching to the title. And that makes RCB special in its own way.

Even today the team enjoys a formidable position in the IPL. And the teams which have won a title like Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Titans find themselves to be at a level lesser than RCB in terms of the love they receive. There is slightest doubt in anyone's mind that RCB always had a strong team with them. And yet somehow they have never won the tournament. The RCB women's team won the 2nd edition of the WPL, and the men's team is yet to win it after 16 editions of the league. But what's exactly the reason behind them not winning the title even once?

There are a flurry of reasons for the same. The primary reason is the ignorance of the franchise to trust, groom and nurture Indian talents except Virat Kohli. Virat has a staggering 8003 runs to his name, all of which have come while playing for the same team. But the second highest Indian run scorer for them is Rahul Dravid, who stands at 1132 runs, and who retired 14 years back. The gap of runs scored by Indian batters for the franchise is immense and it goes on to show that they have failed to trust their own players. Players like Devdutt Padikkal who were local guys were not trusted by the management even when they performed. Even the best bowler of IPL Yuzvendra Chahal was not retained by the franchise.

The IPL stands for Indian Premier League, and if the franchise isn't keen on keeping and nurturing Indian talents, the battle is already lost. Every team has only 4 overseas players, while the remaining 7 are Indians. And if the team doesn't have some constant names out of those 7, the output is going to hamper. Every other team has trusted Indian players. Team like Mumbai Indians have scouted Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya few years back and have trusted them which is now showing results. Chennai Super Kings have trusted Ruturaj Gaikwad in spite of his failure in the first few matches, and now he is the captain of the team after MS Dhoni. Similarly RCB should've trusted someone.

The second most important reason is the lack of investment on their bowling. When the team can't defend 200+ runs, it's clearly the bowling unit's fault. A team can only be good when they excel in batting, bowling and fielding. While one agrees that RCB always had exceptional batting talent like Gayle, AB De Villiers, Faf, Watson to guide Virat Kohli, the team always lacked firepower in bowling to defend even a mountain of runs they scored. Except the backing of Mohammad Siraj, the RCB management has failed to identify the talents and hone their skills. A result of which either the team gives away too many runs while bowling first, or is unable to defend a good total posted by their batters eventually leading to a defeat.

If these two reasons aren't enough, the third and the most important thing of all is the management of the franchise, which is below par. It cannot always happen that a player performing poorly for RCB is suddenly performing well after choosing to play for different franchise. The likes of Starc, Stoinis, Kedar Jadhav and many others who didn't perform for RCB excelled greatly for others. And the same happens in the opposite way when a performing player for other team joins RCB and doesn't perform. Any player who has same skills who is able to play good for other teams, and not able to perform with RCB is certainly not the player's fault. It is the fault of management, who is not ensuring a healthy atmosphere in the team.

A cumulative result of all these factors has not allowed the team to win any trophy. The love of fans and their fanaticism, along with team's failures of the past in the most favouring situations, plays on the minds of every RCB players including Virat when they play in a crucial knockout match. It was evident from the fact that the Virat Kohli of 2016 who scored a whopping 973 runs in the season failed when it mattered the most in the final. It's a similar case of India and Pakistan matches , when pressure to win plays on Pakistan player's minds to win a ODI World Cup match against India which always leads to their defeat. The same has always happened with RCB which denied them trophies when they were inching closer to win it.

Its staggering to know that the finalists of 2009 IPL, who lit up the tournament under Anil Kumble, are still not able to fetch their first trophy. The team looked to be the clear favourite to win it in 2009, and when they didn't it looked like it might just take 1 or 2 more seasons to fetch them the title. But sadly it didn't happen. The reason was that the mistakes made by the team earlier were repeated time and again and the lessons were not learnt. And the result of it was the team meeting the same fate. If only the franchise looks into these factors seriously, and trust Indian talents, improve their bowling and work to create better atmosphere, its only a matter of time when they will have their hands on the trophy. And they truly deserve the same. Its sad to see the best batter in the world Virat to be at the receiving end of disappointment year after year. And it's also sad to see the most loyal fanbase go trophy less. Hopefully, sooner some day, the team will win the title, accomplishing Virat's dream and the fulfilling fan's wishes.