Former Indian captain Anil Kumble expressed his surprise by the impressive performance of Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma in the previous season of IPL 2025 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Many cricket boffins didn’t rate the spin duo highly and felt the spin attack is going to be RCB’s kryptonite however Pandya and Sharma were able to deliver the goods.

While Pandya scalped 17 wickets in 15 matches at an average of 22.29 and an economy rate of 8.23, Suyash Sharma bagged eight wickets in 14 matches at an economy rate of 8.84 in IPL 2025.

“The consistency from the two spinners was really surprising. I didn’t expect that. If you look at the ten teams, I don’t think you would put Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma as the No.1 spin duo in that list. You associate Krunal mostly with stopping the run flow but not necessarily with wicket-taking abilities. But Krunal was different last season,” Anil Kumble said on Star Sports.

“The fast bowlers, we knew could fulfill their roles, be it Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, or Josh Hazlewood. What stood out were the contributions from the two spinners – Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma. Teams that have won have always had good and balanced bowling attacks.”

The former RCB skipper feels the franchise were found wanting with the new ball in the Powerplay overs as their bowlers could not strike early whereas they were also not up to the mark in the death overs when they could not lift a title in the first 17 years of the tournament.

“What RCB was found wanting in the years they couldn’t win the IPL was the death overs and the initial breakthroughs with the new ball. It was not consistently happening. There were a few games where Mohammed Siraj would pick wickets with the new ball, and then suddenly that wouldn’t happen. But last season they did that well,” said Kumble (via the aforementioned source).

RCB will begin their IPL defense against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bengaluru on 28th March.