Uncertainty to clarity: When winning became the standard at RCB

When Royal Challengers Bengaluru finally ended their 18-year wait for an IPL title in 2025, relief was the dominant emotion. For a franchise that had carried the weight of expectation and near-misses for nearly two decades, simply getting over the line felt monumental.

Yet even amid the celebrations, Mo Bobat, RCB’s director of cricket, was already looking beyond the breakthrough.

“If we were to only win or push for it once in this cycle, we’d probably feel like that’s an underachievement,” Bobat told Cricbuzz last year. “I’ve got a lot of belief in this group and Andy [Flower] has as well, as has Rajat [Patidar] and the other senior players, and we’re hungry. So all our attention will go to trying to hunt down a second IPL trophy and try and hunt down back-to-back wins.”

Twelve months later, those words sound less like ambition and more like a blueprint.