RCB’s Strange Start to IPL 2025
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have had a very unusual start to their IPL 2025 campaign. They’ve managed to win tough away games in places like Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, and Jaipur. But surprisingly, they haven’t won a single match at their home ground, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Their latest loss to Punjab Kings marked their third straight defeat at home, all happening while batting first.
Although the team has many strong hitters who are good against fast bowling, they have struggled against pace in two of their three home matches. They were troubled by Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna earlier, and more recently by Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen.
The Chinnaswamy pitch isn’t as good for batting as it used to be in the 2010s. Since coach Andy Flower took over last season, fast bowlers have had more success by bowling hard into the pitch. Out of the 23 wickets taken by fast bowlers in three home games, most came from short or good length deliveries, and almost all were from batters playing cross-batted shots.
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Livingstone’s Record Against Pace
When it comes to hitting pace bowling, Liam Livingstone has been the fastest scorer in IPL history. He has faced 360 balls of pace and scored at a strike rate of 191. Around 63% of those runs come on the leg side, especially between square leg and mid-on where he scores 82% of his leg-side runs.
Here’s A Breakdown Of His IPL Performance:
| Period | Innings | Runs | Balls | Strike Rate | Dismissals | Average | Boundary % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-24 vs Spin | 33 | 281 | 249 | 112.85 | 13 | 21.61 | 11.24 |
| 2019-24 vs Pace | 35 | 658 | 329 | 200.00 | 19 | 34.63 | 31.61 |
| 2025 vs Spin | 6 | 31 | 31 | 100.00 | 4 | 7.75 | 16.12 |
| 2025 vs Pace | 3 | 56 | 37 | 151.35 | 1 | 56.00 | 16.21 |
Where Livingstone Scores Against Pace (Wagon Wheel):
- Long leg: 11.8%
- Square leg: 12.0%
- Mid-wicket: 23.0%
- Mid-on: 18.1%
- Mid-off: 11.4%
- Extra cover: 12.1%
- Backward point: 5.5%
- Third man: 6.1%
Struggles in 2025
This IPL season hasn’t been great for Livingstone. He has scored only 87 runs in six matches, with 54 of those coming in just one innings. In the rest of the games, he hasn’t made much impact. He got out to pace bowling four times, scoring just 31 runs at a strike rate of 100. Every time, he was dismissed while playing a cross-batted shot outside off stump a cut, a scoop, and two slogs and all were caught between the keeper and cover point.
This is not new. Throughout his IPL career, 19 of his 23 dismissals to pace have come from deliveries outside the off stump. He does well against full deliveries outside off stump scoring at a strike rate of 218 and averaging 85 but struggles against good length and short balls in the same area, averaging only 18.4.
Bowlers have used this tactic well in 2025. Of the 31 balls bowled to him this season outside off stump, 23 were in the right area, and 19 were of good length or shorter. This has led to four dismissals.
Livingstone vs Pace Outside Off-Stump Channel:
| Length | Runs | Balls | Strike Rate | Dismissals | Average | Dot % | Boundary % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full | 170 | 78 | 217.94 | 2 | 85.00 | 22.6% | 38.46% |
| Good length & shorter | 313 | 171 | 183.04 | 17 | 18.41 | 35.3% | 28.07% |
What’s Next for RCB and Livingstone?
With the Chinnaswamy pitch offering a tough challenge, IPL 2025 RCB’s batters especially Livingstone need to come up with a better way to score runs at home. They still have four of their next six matches to be played in Bengaluru, so solving this problem is crucial if they want to turn their season around.