On the night of the final, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru looked like a team in control, their calm demeanour a stark contrast to the Gujarat Titans’ hassled approach. What kept RCB composed in that pressure situation?
Virat Kohli, after the match, said that the pressure of expectations on them was much less than last year, when they had won their maiden title after an 18-year wait. Head coach Andy Flower, however, thinks that it’s the presence of experienced players, who have handled such crunch situations earlier, which allows them to adopt a relaxed approach.
“We’re lucky to have some of the personnel in our dressing room. And we’re lucky that they can influence the group in such a calm and positive manner,” Flower said at a media conference after the final in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
“We’ve got some characters in our dressing room that inspire that level of calmness and confidence. We’ve spoken at length about Virat (Kohli) already, but bowlers like (Josh) Hazlewood and Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and KP (Krunal Pandya), those guys are calm under pressure.
“The pressure in IPL is similar to that you experience in playoff stages of World Cups or in Ashes matches... and having people who have done it before, who have come through in adversity before, those are deeper, stronger levels of
confidence than you might have in other individuals that hadn’t had those experiences,” the former Zimbabwe captain added.
Flower, however, revealed that despite the overall calmness in their dugout, there were a few nervous souls. “There would have been a lot of nervous people in our dressing room, in our dugout. I was certainly one of them.
“There was a little more jeopardy and uncertainty around last year’s title chase. After winning the trophy last year, and then after playing some outstanding cricket through the group phase this year, our confidence levels have increased.”
Praise for Bhuvi
The coach observed that behind RCB’s back-to-back titles, bowling spearhead Bhuvneshwar’s performance was a major force.
“Bhuvi has been outstanding for these last two seasons, and, arguably, we wouldn’t have had our success at all over the last two seasons if he hadn’t been producing performances under pressure repeatedly that he’s done over the last two seasons,” Flower said.
While Bhuvneshwar had claimed 17 wickets in RCB’s victorious campaign in 2025, he did even better this time, finishing with 28 scalps.