IPL 2020: Team Preview – Royal Challengers Bangalore
They have never won the IPL despite featuring in three of the finals. And yet the fact does not take away any of the glamour from Royal Challengers Bangalore. The cliche, “You can love them or you can hate them, but you can not ignore them”, fits them perfectly. Boasting one of the biggest fan bases, Virat Kohli’s team has disappointed their fans over the years. With the IPL 2020 being played in the UAE, will Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers finally have an IPL trophy in their hands?
Squad:
Strengths:
But obviously, the duo of Kohli and AB de Villiers will hold the batting order of RCB together. Both the world-class batsmen are amongst the greatest of this era in all three formats of the game. While they been consistent performers for the Bangalore-side, this year they have a few exciting names they can rely on. The Australian captain Aaron Finch is a wonderful addition of the top. He will take some heat off the champion duo. Devdutt Padikkal is one of the youngsters to watch out for. Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris etc. are devastating in the lower order and can strike lusty blows.
On the UAE tracks, spinners will play an important role. RCB have assembled a spectacular buffet of spinners. They have leg-spinners (Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa), off-spinners (Moeen Ali, Washington Sundar) and slow left-arm spinners (Pavan Negi, Shahbaz Ahmad) to take wickets against any kind of opposition. It will be now up to Kohli to use them wisely in the match situation.
Weaknesses
The weakness that even an ardent RCB fan will admit is their team’s death bowling over the years. Even after starting well, the opposition have made most of the death overs to overpower RCB in close encounters. While the issue will remain in focus in this season, RCB do promise to have it sorted. They do have slots for overseas pacers and the likes of Dale Steyn and Chris Morris could deliver some quiet overs at the death. From the other end, they have Navdeep Saini. The Indian pacer can bowl at express speed and should be good enough at the death.
RCB have been an excellent example of how tactical mistakes can let down a strong cricket unit. This year with Mike Hesson at the helm, the team will be hoping to turn their fortunes around. They have tremendous resources and using them wisely will be a key factor in deciding the fate of the Bangalore team.
Strongest Playing XI
Aaron Finch, Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli (c), Moeen Ali, AB de Villiers, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini.
Devdutt Padikkal is likely to hog one of the opening slots whenever there is a vacancy at the top. Dale Steyn could make a way in place of Moeen Ali if RCB go with an Indian spinner which they have plenty of. Josh Phillippe is another exciting name in the squad.
Team Fixtures
