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Bhuvneshwar Kumar says that pitches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium are not ‘how they used to be’ in the past.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Image: X)
Senior Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has claimed that the pitches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium are not behaving like ‘they used to’ in IPL 2025. He didn’t comment on it further, only saying that he didn’t know the reason and that RCB will try to adapt to the conditions as well as they can when they play against Punjab Kings (PBKS) here on Friday.
RCB have won four of their six matches this season. Both of their losses have come at home — an eight-wicket defeat to the Gujarat Titans followed by a six-wicket loss to the Delhi Capitals. In both encounters, scores in the first innings didn’t go past 170 and bowlers from both sides enjoyed more help than usual. RCB batters found it difficult to cope against DC and GT’s quality and the home bowlers couldn’t replicate that impact.
“Our preparation is as usual, nothing different,” Bhuvneshwar said on the eve of RCB’s third home game of the season against PBKS. “What we do for any opposition on any ground, it is going to be the same. We know the Chinnaswamy is known for batting, but if you look at the wicket, it is not the same as what it used to be. I don’t know the reason, but yes, whether we bowl or bat first, we’ll look at the first few overs and then see how the wicket plays, and then we will decide how to approach things accordingly.”
The pacer is not the first to comment on the pitch from RCB. Earlier, mentor Dinesh Karthik had blamed the sluggish surfaces for neutralizing their batting unit.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar hails Josh Hazlewood’s calmness
Bhuvneshwar has found an excellent bowling partner in Australia’s Josh Hazlewood this season. The duo usually take the new ball and Rajat Patidar tends to divide the difficult overs among them. Hazlewood has nine wickets in six matches this season with an average of 21 and an economy rate 8.65.
“He has been very good,” Bhuvneshwar said on Hazlewood. “The best thing is that he has been calm. That’s what we need, especially in this format, because when you lose a match, the easy thing is to panic, and that’s what he hasn’t done. We lost two matches, but he was the same whether we won or lost.”
