New players were signed at the auctions, there was a new coach at the helm of affairs, there was Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers and there was plenty of excitement. But the story was similar for the Royal Challengers Bangalore - dumped out the league before the final week could commence and a season full of disappointments and frustrations.
Over the last three editions of IPL, RCB have won only 13 games out of the available 43 and their coach Gary Kirsten believes that time has come for them to make fundamental changes to the setup.
"There are some structural changes that need to be made and that have been around for quite a long time," Kirsten said in Bengaluru on Friday. "This is my first year as the head coach, so I've got a better understanding of what those are. We'll certainly discuss with our owners and look into that for next year."
"It's been a disappointing season"
Speaking about the 2019 season, the South African said that he was quite encouraged with what he saw in the second half of the IPL where his side won four out of the seven games. But then he rues the shocking start to this year's edition which cost them dearly.
"It's been a disappointing season. Obviously, we would have liked to have had better results. I've been very encouraged with the second half of the season since we only got two points in the first half. But we've won four of our last seven games, and one of them was a rained-out game. So that's kind of back to the kind of consistency you need. We started to really get things going in the second half, but unfortunately, in IPL if you have a bad start you're always going to be struggling," he added.
There seems to be a lack of direction in the RCB camp and the former India coach acknowledged the fact. He accepted that owing to poor results they had to keep chopping and changing players which never really helped. He spoke about how the successful sides have a settled core and there is continuity in the ranks.
"I think the most successful franchises in IPL have done that. We're searching for that in RCB. While there might be some structural change next year, I'm hopeful and confident we'll have some continuity in our players," the RCB coach explained.
Skipper Virat Kohli has harped on the fact that players need to enjoy themselves on the field. While Kirsten agrees, he also believes that, if things are not going for the side, the younger players feel the pinch. The reason being an extremely intense competition which the league witnesses and where the pressure is very high.
