"RCB have always been overdependent on.."- Colin de Grandhomme's sensational acceptance

Former New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme who made his debut in the Indian Premier League circuit with the Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2017 season as a replacement for Andre Russell, has explained the real reason why his second IPL outfit Royal Challengers Bangalore hasn’t been able to win the coveted trophy even after reaching the finals on 3 occasions.

Colin de Grandhomme was signed by the RCB a season after his debut for KKR. The South Indian outfit would splash INR 2.2 crores for him after quite a lengthy bidding war with other franchises that saw his base price of 75 Lakhs get stretched to crores.

It was quite an uncanny decision made by Bangalore as de Grandhomme didn’t have a successful outing on his debut IPL season. The all-rounder played 12 matches, scoring 126 runs at a strike rate of less than 140 with a highest of 36 and averaged just 15 across the season.

Having arrived just as a replacement for Russell, the former Kiwi international was not retained by the franchise and he appeared for RCB the following year. During the 10th season of IPL, Colin de Grandhomme played just 9 games and had an improved performance with the bat as he scored 131 runs with a 150+ strike rate.

However, his performance with the ball was extremely poor, collecting just 2 wickets, and further degraded himself after a debut season in which he had 4 wickets to his name. That did not faze RCB at all as they retained him for the 2019 edition where his performance as well as game time further depleted.

de Grandhomme played just 4 games, scored 46 runs, and collected no wickets and that proved to be his final season in the richest cricketing league of the world. He was not an effective signing made by RCB in the first place but that’s something the franchise is known for – buying players that do not provide stability in their team.

It was the same thing that Colin de Grandhomme too mentioned during a recent interview with Times of India where he claimed that the franchise has never had a well-balanced side. He also highlighted the fact that the team at times gets heavily reliant on certain individuals with Virat Kohli being the most prominent one.

“RCB have a very good side, but over-dependence on two, three players has never worked their way, which is why they have never stood out as a well-balanced side.” – de Grandhomme told TOI.

“They Have Never Had A Team As Strong As Mumbai Indians”, Colin de Grandhomme Slams His Former Franchise

Colin de Grandhomme who originally hails from the capital of Zimbabwe i.e Harare, slammed RCB for never composing a well-balanced side and a team that can be as strong as 5-time champions Mumbai Indians.

“RCB have never had a team as strong as Mumbai Indians where the all-round composition of the team has been excellent.” – de Grandhomme concluded.

RCB squad for IPL 2024: Faf du Plessis (C), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.