When Kevin Pietersen replaced Rahul Dravid as the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL team, there was a fair bit of discussion in international cricket with regard to this decision. The team management probably hoped for a reversal of the team’s fortunes in this year’s DLF IPL 2009 tournament, a team that finished last but one last year. However so far this does not seem to be the case though RCB started their campaign in this competition with a bang to convincingly beat defending champs Rajasthan Royals.

And there are further troubles that will be ailing the RCB team since Kevin Pietersen will soon be departing for national duty, with the English side due to play the upcoming series against the West Indies and a captain to take his place is being sought. Jacques Kallis is one name being considered, but he has looked somewhat jaded with the bat as well as the ball, his performance being below par. Ray Jennings, coach has however indicated that if he fails to perform there are others such as Mark Boucher, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid to take up the captaincy.

Neither has the change of captaincy or cricket news’ much discussed rotating captain theory of KKR worked in favour of that team. Brendon McCullum, who replaced Sourav Ganguly, has so far not met with any favourable results either for his team or personally as a batsman. He has struggled to be among the runs which have thus far eluded him and acknowledged that his team has simply not played as well as it needs to.

“We need to look deep inside ourselves, and find a way now. We have no excuses and can make no excuses. We must start winning,” McCullum was reported as having said in the cricket news.

RCB coach Jennings was also reported as having spoken in a similarly disappointed fashion. "I'm disappointed in the performance of some of the players. I don't think too many players have risen to the occasion in one game. That goes to everybody. There are not too many players who have walked away with results that would make an impact on the field. Our fielding has not been up to the scratch and we haven't done well both with the ball and bat in the first and the last six overs," said Jennings.

Both teams will be looking to address these and other issues in today’s game, each realizing that if they lose this one, their hopes of making it to a semi final berth are all but gone. 

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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