You would except a team which has Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers to win a lot of silverware. Ironically, their trophy cabinet is empty. Soon as it looked like as if their maiden title hunt would finally come to an end they were defeated by David Warner”s SRH in last year”s IPL final to prolong the streak.
RCB”s bowling lacked penetration. Their batsmen were scoring runs but at the same the huge totals that were put on the board by Kohli, de Villiers and Co. were made a mockery of by the oppositions because of their frail bowling.
Just a day before the auction, Mitchell Starc severed his ties with RCB. This forced the franchise owners to review their strategy and find good death bowlers that could replace someone with caliber of Starc. They have roped in Tymal Mills for a whooping 12 crore and a bunch of Indian bowlers as well.
The chances of RCB were severely dented when captain Virat Kohli was ruled out of first four weeks and KL Rahul of the entire edition of IPL. Further it is also reported that AB has sustained a minor injury and will be out for first few games. However its now time to put behind what has happened and get the best of the bunch of players they have got fit.
Strengths – Despite of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul being ruled out, this batting line up looks pretty formidable. Gayle, Watson and De Villiers form the backbone of the batting line up. They have some exciting youngsters like Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh etc.
Weakness – This team doesn”t have an experienced Indian fast bowler. Even though they have bought Tymal Mills, it is fair to say their bowling still looks feeble. Although they have got some promising spinners, Chinnaswamy Stadium doesn”t offer them much help which will make the captain reluctant to play them.
X-Factor – AB de Villiers” ability to play 360°shots.
Probable XI (without Virat Kohli, Rahul and De Villiers) – Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Shane Watson (C), Sarfaraz Khan, Kedar Jadhav, Travis Head, Stuart Binny, Iqbal Abdulla, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sreenath Aravind, Tymal Mills.
Shane Watson is the most suitable candidate to take over the captaincy in absence of Virat and AB. Mandeep Singh will open with Christopher Henry Gayle. Sarfaraz will replace Virat and Travis Head will come in for AB. Tymal Mills will lead pace attack and Chahal, Abdulla will be the spinners.
RCB squad: Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Sarfaraz Khan, S Aravind, Kedar Jadhav, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Pawan Negi, Tymal Mills, Aniket Choudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake.
Team Schedule :-
Match 1: SRH vs RCB, April 5 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 5: RCB vs Delhi Daredevils, April 8 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 8: Kings XI Punjab vs RCB, April 10 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 12: RCB vs Mumbai Indians, April 14 2017, 4:00 PM IST
Match 17: RCB vs Rising Pune Supergiant, April 16 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 20: Gujarat Lions vs RCB, April 18 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 27: KKR vs RCB, April 23 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 29: RCB vs SRH, April 25 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 31: RCB vs Gujarat Lions, April 27 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 34: Rising Pune Supergiant vs RCB, April 29 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 38: Mumbai Indians vs RCB, May 1 2017, 4:00 PM IST
Match 43: RCB vs Kings XI Punjab, May 5 2017, 8:00 PM IST
Match 46: RCB vs KKR, May 7 2017, 4:00 PM IST
Match 56: Delhi Daredevils vs RCB, May 15 2017, 8:00 PM IST
– by Atharva Apte
