Rajat Patidar won the titles but Smriti Mandhana turned RCB first. Don't forget her

Winning is a habit, they say. When success comes, momentum takes over, confidence grows, and victories become almost natural. But when a team is stuck in a losing cycle, even the smallest setbacks seem magnified. Happiness seems elusive, faith begins to fade, and the light at the end of the tunnel is hard to discern. Few franchises have experienced both extremes like Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

on Sunday Rajat Patidar etched his name in IPL history by becoming only the third captainafter MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, to successfully defend the IPL title. This achievement has rightly earned the Patidar wide praise across the entire cricketing fraternity.

It wasn’t that long ago that RCB were branded as persistent underdogs despite boasting some of the biggest names in world cricket. The franchise endured years of heartbreak and became the target of endless jokes with the famous slogan ‘Ee Sala Cup Namde’ often used more for trolling than a rallying cry.

However, every success story has a starting point. While Patidar deserves immense credit for continuing RCB’s golden run, the real turning point came when Smriti Mandhana, a veritable Lady Luck, came in as captain, changing her destinies from within. Under her leadership, RCB won their first ever major title by winning the Women’s Premier League in 2024.

More importantly, Mandhana gave the franchise something it had been looking for for a long time: faith. She showed that RCB can win trophies. Patidar now carries this legacy forward, but it was Mandhana who first turned a hopeful dream into a winning habit.

HOW MANDHANA BUILT A PLATFORM

Smriti Mandhana is the first RCB skipper to win the IPL trophy. Courtesy: PTI

The RCB men’s team has not won anything until 2024 and has often been criticized for faltering in crunch moments. The women’s team initially followed a similar script, losing five games on the trot in their inaugural 2023 season. The trolling was relentless and RCB found themselves under the microscope once again, barely escaping the bottom spot.

Questions have also been raised about Smriti Mandhana’s captaincy, especially with a proven leader like Heather Knight, who helped England win the 2017 World Cup, in the squad. With stars like Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt and Sophie Devine in the lineup, the anticipation was clear, but success remained elusive. RCB just didn’t seem built for titles.

This perception changed in 2024 when Mandhana led from the front becoming the first RCB skipper to lift the trophy. In the final against Delhi Capitals, when Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma struck for 64 runs in just 7.1 overs, RCB looked under extreme pressure. But Mandhana’s composure stood out as she orchestrated a remarkable turnaround and led her side to a dominant 8-wicket win. Courtesy: Shreyanka Patil Instagram

Although they fell short in 2025, Mandhana produced another defining season in 2026. Her 41-ball 87 in the final against the Capitals was a statement of intent, especially as RCB sought the highest successful run-chase in WPL history. She thrived under the pressure rather than faded.

Mandhana not only won matches but changed beliefs. RCB have learned to win with their backs against the wall. Today, the men’s team draws confidence from its women’s counterpart, and a franchise that was once labeled unattainable is now among the most formidable in Indian cricket.

THE SPEECH THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

Virat Kohli gave a motivational speech to the RCB Women’s team in 2023. Courtesy: RCB screengrab

In 2023, when RCB was going through a rough patch in the WPL, Virat Kohli entered with a motivational speech that felt more like a lived experience than management advice. Kohli, who now has two IPL trophies, was still without a title back then – much like the RCB women’s team and an even earlier version of the men’s side, which struggled for years to turn promise into silverware.

He knew the feeling all too well. The frustration of close games, the weight of expectations and endless questions as to why RCB couldn’t get over the line.

“There is no guarantee that we can give the fans the cup every year, but there is a guarantee that we will give it 110 per cent,” he said.

Those words quietly shifted something in the camp. The obsession with results began to fade away, replaced by a sharper focus on effort, intention, and consistency. And in many ways, the story started to turn towards RCB.

A franchise that once waited 17 years for its first title at any level he has now won four trophies across IPL and WPL in just three years. Smriti Mandhana laid the early foundation of faith and now Rajat Patidar is carrying this momentum forward.

After Sunday’s triumph, Patidar even talked about RCB aiming to become the first IPL team to win three titles in a row. A few years ago, this would have sounded like a distant fantasy, almost wishful thinking. Today, it is no longer a dream, but a direction RCB truly believes it can go.

– The end

Issued by:

sabyasachi chowdhury

Published on:

02 Jun 2026 08:35 IST