RCB’s Director Mo Bobat reveals how the war-break helped win IPL 2025

Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Director of Cricket Mo Bobat has revealed how the war-break helped them win IPL 2025. RCB bested Punjab Kings by six runs in IPL 2025 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad to win their maiden title in the tournament.

During the fag end of the league stage, India executed Operation Sindoor on Pakistan after terrorist attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 people.

Ergo, IPL 2025 was indefinitely suspended and the competition resumed after the situation normalised. Bobat said the break was helpful for them physically as a lot of players were struggling with injuries but at the same time, it didn’t help them psychologically as they had the impetus on their side before the suspension.

“We had some injuries and niggles. You know, Rajat had fractured his knuckle. Josh Hazlewood’s shoulder niggle had appeared. Dev [Padikkal] was struggling a little bit with his hamstring at that time. The bodies were creaking a little bit because of the schedule. And so, there were pros and cons. You know, I think so long as we could patch up the guys physically, I was quite keen for us to play soon. I wasn’t in favour of having to wait a few months to come back. So, I’m glad the break wasn’t too long,” Mo Bobat said in an interview with Cricbuzz.

“I would say there were upsides and downsides to the break. Mentally it was bad timing because actually we were in a good place. We were playing good cricket. You don’t want to lose that feeling and that momentum. So, psychologically, it was a bad time. Physically, it was probably a good time because we had just played seven games in 21 or 22 days, all travelling before and after each one. You know, that was probably the most extensive schedule that any team had,” the RCB director added.

The RCB’s Director also revealed that at no point did they force the foreign players to stay in India when the situation with Pakistan escalated.

“The moment we caught wind of the postponement, myself and Andy immediately met with the overseas players. I remember they came to my hotel room and we spoke to them. We wanted to make sure that we treated them like adults, because they are. If they didn’t feel comfortable being in the country because of the conflict escalating and they wanted to go home, we said we have to honour that. So, at no point did we try and force them to stay. We did the opposite – we gave them choice,” Bobat said.

RCB were able to come up with a collective effort and delivered as a unit.