Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) kick off their IPL 2025 campaign with back-to-back away games, starting in Kolkata and then moving to Chennai—two venues where spin often plays a key role in success. For RCB to make a strong start, their spinners will need to step up.

Krunal Pandya brings experience as a left-arm orthodox spinner, but his IPL numbers—an economy rate of 7.36 and an average of 34.28—suggest he is more of a defensive bowler. While this can be an asset, especially with RCB set to play seven home games at the batting-friendly M Chinnaswamy Stadium, his primary value lies in his containment skills.

However, the spin department of RCB excluding Krunal is relatively inexperienced. RCB's spin attack doesn’t exactly inspire fear. Wrist-spinner Suyash Sharma is still finding his feet in the IPL, while his backup, Mohit Rathee, remains an unknown commodity. Liam Livingstone can chip in with his part-time spin, but he’s not a frontline option. Swapnil Singh did a decent job last season, and Jacob Bethell might roll his arm over, but when you compare RCB’s spin department to other teams, it feels like they’re missing a real game-changer.

Head coach Andy Flower said he understood people having questions on RCB's spin unit leading into the season, but the combination of Krunal's experience, the wristspinners' potential, and the option Livingstone provides means he himself is "comfortable" with the situation.

"On the wristspin front, Suyash is a very exciting young prospect with limited experience, but has a really high ceiling. And Mohit Rathee to back him up," Flower said. "You know, we are looking for great things from Suyash, but none of us know exactly how he's going to go in a full IPL season. And every young player starts off that way.

"He's rehabbing after a recent groin surgery and that's gone really well. That's been a long-standing injury problem he had, which we identified during the off season. And he's had some really good care and attention from RCB.
We're hoping for great things from him. But we are also not expecting him to be, you know, Shane Warne from the off.

"We've got to be patient and let him learn from his experiences. And it's good that he's got these experienced cricketers around him and a captain he'll be comfortable working with. To back them up, obviously Swapnil Singh was good for us last year. and Liam Livingstone does a bit of everything. Having him as backup on the spin department is quite a nice insurance to have. So we're comfortable with where we are."