Divya Delhi:  With much anticipation, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru begin the 18th season of the Indian Premier League. For the first time in IPL history, the Patidar-led team hopes to win the championship. Today, they will play the first game of the season at Eden Gardens in Kolkata against the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, it appears that they might as well have an ugly ending to this season. The Royal Challengers may not even qualify for the playoffs for the following three likely reasons. Adam Gilchrist of the legendary Punjab Kings (now Kings XI Punjab) and Australia recently made a mocking comment on the Club Prairie Fire podcast that the Royal Challengers would end up at the bottom of the standings. He claimed that the team's degrowth this season may be due to the large number of English players on it. There is some truth to this statement. Indian talent that is used to the conditions and capable of producing the best results is needed on Indian pitches. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru's highest travel mileage for the event is 17,084 km, which may hinder their ability to adjust to changing conditions as well as other teams. Additionally, this journey distance will cause weariness. According to the Royal Challengers' schedule, they must play the Punjab Kings at Bengaluru on April 18 and Mullanpur on April 20 respectively.